★英語(yǔ)聽(tīng)力頻道為大家整理的英語(yǔ)聽(tīng)力材料：全球老齡化 十億銀發(fā)族。更多閱讀請(qǐng)查看本站英語(yǔ)聽(tīng)力頻道。
Global ageing 全球老齡化
A billion shades of grey
十億銀發(fā)族
An ageing economy will be a slower and more unequal one—unless policy starts changing now
一個(gè)老齡化的經(jīng)濟(jì)體會(huì)發(fā)展地越來(lái)越緩慢，且社會(huì)不平等加劇—除非現(xiàn)在就開(kāi)始政策改革
WARREN BUFFETT, who on May 3rd hosts the folksy extravaganza that is Berkshire Hathaway's annual shareholders' meeting, is an icon of American capitalism. At 83, he also epitomises a striking demographic trend: for highly skilled people to go on working well into what was once thought to be old age. Across the rich world, well-educated people increasingly work longer than the less-skilled. Some 65% of American men aged 62-74 with a professional degree are in the workforce, compared with 32% of men with only a high-school certificate. In the European Union the pattern is similar.
沃倫巴菲特，這個(gè)美國(guó)資本主義的象征式人物，將于5月3號(hào)主持伯克希爾·哈撒韋公司一年一度的股東大會(huì)。83歲高齡的他也正代表了當(dāng)前人口發(fā)展趨勢(shì)的一個(gè)令人震驚的縮影：高技術(shù)人才在步入老年之后仍然繼續(xù)工作。在富裕的國(guó)家，受過(guò)良好教育的人比低端技術(shù)工人工作時(shí)間更長(zhǎng)。在美國(guó)，擁有專業(yè)學(xué)位且年齡在62到74歲之間的人中有大約65%仍然在崗，相較之下，擁有高中文憑的人只有32%還在工作。在歐洲情況也類似。
This gap is part of a deepening divide between the well-educated well-off and the unskilled poor that is slicing through all age groups. Rapid innovation has raised the incomes of the highly skilled while squeezing those of the unskilled. Those at the top are working longer hours each year than those at the bottom. And the well-qualified are extending their working lives, compared with those of less-educated people (see article). The consequences, for individuals and society, are profound.
這種差異體現(xiàn)了一種受過(guò)高等教育的富裕階層和缺乏技能的窮人階層之間日益加深的社會(huì)分化，而且這樣的分化遍布各個(gè)年齡層。快速的創(chuàng)新增加了高技術(shù)人才的收入，卻壓縮了低技術(shù)工人的薪資。處于高層職位的人的工作時(shí)間和底層工人相比逐年遞增，有資質(zhì)的人的工作年限也比沒(méi)有的人要多。這樣的結(jié)果不論對(duì)于個(gè)人和社會(huì)來(lái)說(shuō)，都有著深遠(yuǎn)的影響。
Older, wiser and a lot of them
數(shù)量眾多的高技術(shù)人才變老了
The world is on the cusp of a staggering rise in the number of old people, and they will live longer than ever before. Over the next 20 years the global population of those aged 65 or more will almost double, from 600m to 1.1 billion. The experience of the 20th century, when greater longevity translated into more years in retirement rather than more years at work, has persuaded many observers that this shift will lead to slower economic growth and “secular stagnation”, while the swelling ranks of pensioners will bust government budgets.
世界的老齡人口正在以驚人的速度增長(zhǎng)，并且他們?cè)交钤介L(zhǎng)。在未來(lái)的20年里，全球65歲以上的老年人數(shù)量將會(huì)翻番，從6000萬(wàn)到11億。根據(jù)20世紀(jì)的經(jīng)驗(yàn)來(lái)看，當(dāng)長(zhǎng)壽意味著更長(zhǎng)的退休時(shí)間和更短的工作時(shí)間時(shí)，很多人都會(huì)感覺(jué)到明顯的經(jīng)濟(jì)增速減緩和長(zhǎng)期經(jīng)濟(jì)停滯，同時(shí)越來(lái)越多的養(yǎng)老金申領(lǐng)人口會(huì)導(dǎo)致政府的預(yù)算破產(chǎn)。
But the notion of a sharp division between the working young and the idle old misses a new trend, the growing gap between the skilled and the unskilled. Employment rates are falling among younger unskilled people, whereas older skilled folk are working longer. The divide is most extreme in America, where well-educated baby-boomers are putting off retirement while many less-skilled younger people have dropped out of the workforce.
當(dāng)我們只關(guān)注于工作年輕人與閑散老年人的嚴(yán)重分化現(xiàn)象時(shí)，往往忽略了一個(gè)新的趨勢(shì)，即不同人勞動(dòng)技能之間日益加劇的差異。缺乏技能的年輕人的就業(yè)率在下降，而經(jīng)驗(yàn)豐富的高技術(shù)人才卻工作得越來(lái)越久。在美國(guó)，這樣的分歧為嚴(yán)重，嬰兒潮時(shí)期出生的、受過(guò)良好教育的人們延遲退休，從而將技能不足的年輕人排擠出勞動(dòng)力市場(chǎng)。
Policy is partly responsible. Many European governments have abandoned policies that used to encourage people to retire early. Rising life expectancy, combined with the replacement of generous defined-benefit pension plans with stingier defined-contribution ones, means that even the better-off must work longer to have a comfortable retirement. But the changing nature of work also plays a big role. Pay has risen sharply for the highly educated, and those people continue to reap rich rewards into old age because these days the educated elderly are more productive than their predecessors. Technological change may well reinforce that shift: the skills that complement computers, from management expertise to creativity, do not necessarily decline with age.
政策也要為此承擔(dān)一部分責(zé)任。很多歐洲政府已經(jīng)撤銷了鼓勵(lì)人們提早退休的政策。增長(zhǎng)的壽命，再加上養(yǎng)老金計(jì)劃從回報(bào)豐厚的固定收益型轉(zhuǎn)為日趨緊縮的固定繳費(fèi)型，這都意味著經(jīng)濟(jì)條件較好的人都不得不工作更長(zhǎng)時(shí)間以保障一個(gè)安逸的晚年。另外，工作性質(zhì)的改變也是原因之一。受過(guò)高等教育的人的工資顯著增加，因?yàn)檫@些人的生產(chǎn)能力比前人更高，所以他們能將所得的高額酬勞儲(chǔ)蓄起來(lái)作為晚年的保障。科技的轉(zhuǎn)型也會(huì)增強(qiáng)這樣的改變：像管理技巧和創(chuàng)造力這種不能夠被計(jì)算機(jī)所取代的能力，不一定會(huì)因年齡老化而失去其價(jià)值。
This trend will benefit not just fortunate oldies but also, in some ways, society as a whole. Growth will slow less dramatically than expected; government budgets will be in better shape, as high earners pay taxes for longer. Rich countries with lots of well-educated older people will find the burden of ageing easier to bear than places like China, where half of all 50-to-64-year-olds did not complete primary-school education.
這種趨勢(shì)不僅對(duì)那些幸運(yùn)的老人們有好處，也令社會(huì)從中得益。經(jīng)濟(jì)增長(zhǎng)不會(huì)像預(yù)期中那樣急劇減緩：政府預(yù)算看起來(lái)會(huì)好得多，因?yàn)楦呤杖胝邥?huì)納稅地更久。擁有大量受過(guò)良好教育的老年人的發(fā)達(dá)國(guó)家，其人口老齡化的負(fù)擔(dān)會(huì)比其他地區(qū)輕得多，比如50至64歲人口中一半都沒(méi)有完成小學(xué)教育的中國(guó)。
At the other end of the social scale, however, things look grim. Manual work gets harder as people get older, and public pensions look more attractive to those on low wages and the unemployed. In the lexicon of popular hate-figures, work-shirking welfare queens breeding at the taxpayer's expense may be replaced by deadbeat grandads collecting taxpayer handouts while their hard-working contemporaries strive on.
然而，從社會(huì)的另一個(gè)層面來(lái)講情形并非如此樂(lè)觀。隨著年齡增長(zhǎng)，體力勞動(dòng)將會(huì)顯得力不從心，因此對(duì)于低收入者和失業(yè)者來(lái)說(shuō)公共養(yǎng)老金會(huì)更有吸引力。招人討厭的公眾形象可能會(huì)從“好吃懶做、靠納稅人供養(yǎng)的福利皇后”變成“欠債不還、當(dāng)同齡人還在努力工作時(shí)卻只會(huì)伸手向納稅人討救濟(jì)品的養(yǎng)老金爺爺”。(“福利皇后”通常指的是中年黑人婦女，她們每天無(wú)所事事，子女也不做事，光吃社會(huì)福利——譯者注)
Nor are all the effects on the economy beneficial. Wealthy old people will accumulate more savings, which will weaken demand. Inequality will increase and a growing share of wealth will eventually be transferred to the next generation via inheritance, entrenching the division between winners and losers still further.
對(duì)經(jīng)濟(jì)的影響并不全是有利的。富裕的老年人會(huì)積累更多的儲(chǔ)蓄，因此會(huì)降低需求。社會(huì)不平等會(huì)增加，其中很大一部分財(cái)富會(huì)以遺產(chǎn)的形式轉(zhuǎn)移給下一代，使得成功者與失敗者之間的貧富差距鴻溝日益加大。
One likely response is to impose higher inheritance taxes. So long as they replaced less-fair taxes, that might make sense. They would probably encourage old people to spend their cash rather than salt it away. But governments should focus not on redistributing income but on generating more of it by reforming retirement and education.
一個(gè)可行的措施是施行高額遺產(chǎn)稅。只要能夠代替其他更缺乏公平的稅收，遺產(chǎn)稅還是較為合理的。這能使老年人花掉他們的積蓄而不是存起來(lái)。但政府也應(yīng)該通過(guò)改革退休政策和教育體系來(lái)創(chuàng)造更多收入，而不能僅僅停留在重新分配收入的層面。
Age should no longer determine the appropriate end of a working life. Mandatory retirement ages and pension rules that discourage people from working longer should go. Welfare should reflect the greater opportunities open to the higher-skilled. Pensions should become more progressive. At the same time, this trend underlines the importance of increasing public investment in education at all stages of life, so that more people acquire the skills they need to thrive in the modern labour market. Today, many governments are understandably loth to spend money retraining older folk who are likely to retire soon. But if people can work for longer, that investment makes much more sense. Deadbeat 60-year-olds are unlikely to become computer scientists, but they could learn useful vocational skills, such as caring for the growing number of very old people.
工作年限不應(yīng)該被年齡所限制。強(qiáng)制性退休年齡和養(yǎng)老金制度會(huì)讓人們不想工作那么久，所以是不合理的，應(yīng)該被淘汰。社會(huì)福利應(yīng)該能夠反映出針對(duì)高技術(shù)人才的廣闊機(jī)遇。養(yǎng)老金應(yīng)該更加循序漸進(jìn)。與此同時(shí)，這個(gè)趨勢(shì)也顯示出加強(qiáng)對(duì)各個(gè)年齡段的公共教育投資的重要性，令更多的人獲得能夠在現(xiàn)代勞動(dòng)力市場(chǎng)中得以立足的技能。如今，很多政府都懶得為那些馬上就要退休的老年人花錢(qián)進(jìn)行重新培訓(xùn)，這是可以理解的。但是，如果人們能夠工作的更久，這種投資是有意義的。年屆60且欠債不還的人不太可能成為計(jì)算機(jī)科學(xué)家。但他們能夠?qū)W習(xí)一些職業(yè)技能，例如照顧數(shù)量越來(lái)越多的老年人。
Old power
老人的力量
How likely are governments to make these changes? Look around the rich world today, and it is hard to be optimistic. The swelling ranks of older voters, and their disproportionate propensity to vote, have left politicians keener to pander to them than to implement disruptive reforms. Germany, despite being the fastest-ageing country in Europe, plans to cut the statutory retirement age for some people. In America both Social Security (the public pension scheme) and the fast-growing system of disability benefits remain untouched by reform. Politicians need to convince less-skilled older voters that it is in their interests to go on working. Doing so will not be easy. But the alternative—economic stagnation and even greater inequality—is worse.
政府作出改變的可能性有多大?放眼當(dāng)今的發(fā)達(dá)國(guó)家，情況不容樂(lè)觀。越來(lái)越多的老年選民會(huì)令投票結(jié)果失衡，政治家為了迎合他們而不會(huì)做出根本性的改革。盡管德國(guó)是歐洲地區(qū)老齡化速度快的國(guó)家，也計(jì)劃對(duì)某部分人降低退休年齡。在美國(guó)，社保(公共養(yǎng)老金體系)和快速增長(zhǎng)的殘障人士福利體系都被隔絕在改革的進(jìn)程之外。政治家需要說(shuō)服那些缺乏勞動(dòng)技能的老年選民：讓你們繼續(xù)工作是為了你們好。這么做可不容易。但是若非如此的話，后果將是經(jīng)濟(jì)蕭條和更大的社會(huì)不平等，那就更糟糕了。
Global ageing 全球老齡化
A billion shades of grey
十億銀發(fā)族
An ageing economy will be a slower and more unequal one—unless policy starts changing now
一個(gè)老齡化的經(jīng)濟(jì)體會(huì)發(fā)展地越來(lái)越緩慢，且社會(huì)不平等加劇—除非現(xiàn)在就開(kāi)始政策改革
WARREN BUFFETT, who on May 3rd hosts the folksy extravaganza that is Berkshire Hathaway's annual shareholders' meeting, is an icon of American capitalism. At 83, he also epitomises a striking demographic trend: for highly skilled people to go on working well into what was once thought to be old age. Across the rich world, well-educated people increasingly work longer than the less-skilled. Some 65% of American men aged 62-74 with a professional degree are in the workforce, compared with 32% of men with only a high-school certificate. In the European Union the pattern is similar.
沃倫巴菲特，這個(gè)美國(guó)資本主義的象征式人物，將于5月3號(hào)主持伯克希爾·哈撒韋公司一年一度的股東大會(huì)。83歲高齡的他也正代表了當(dāng)前人口發(fā)展趨勢(shì)的一個(gè)令人震驚的縮影：高技術(shù)人才在步入老年之后仍然繼續(xù)工作。在富裕的國(guó)家，受過(guò)良好教育的人比低端技術(shù)工人工作時(shí)間更長(zhǎng)。在美國(guó)，擁有專業(yè)學(xué)位且年齡在62到74歲之間的人中有大約65%仍然在崗，相較之下，擁有高中文憑的人只有32%還在工作。在歐洲情況也類似。
This gap is part of a deepening divide between the well-educated well-off and the unskilled poor that is slicing through all age groups. Rapid innovation has raised the incomes of the highly skilled while squeezing those of the unskilled. Those at the top are working longer hours each year than those at the bottom. And the well-qualified are extending their working lives, compared with those of less-educated people (see article). The consequences, for individuals and society, are profound.
這種差異體現(xiàn)了一種受過(guò)高等教育的富裕階層和缺乏技能的窮人階層之間日益加深的社會(huì)分化，而且這樣的分化遍布各個(gè)年齡層。快速的創(chuàng)新增加了高技術(shù)人才的收入，卻壓縮了低技術(shù)工人的薪資。處于高層職位的人的工作時(shí)間和底層工人相比逐年遞增，有資質(zhì)的人的工作年限也比沒(méi)有的人要多。這樣的結(jié)果不論對(duì)于個(gè)人和社會(huì)來(lái)說(shuō)，都有著深遠(yuǎn)的影響。
Older, wiser and a lot of them
數(shù)量眾多的高技術(shù)人才變老了
The world is on the cusp of a staggering rise in the number of old people, and they will live longer than ever before. Over the next 20 years the global population of those aged 65 or more will almost double, from 600m to 1.1 billion. The experience of the 20th century, when greater longevity translated into more years in retirement rather than more years at work, has persuaded many observers that this shift will lead to slower economic growth and “secular stagnation”, while the swelling ranks of pensioners will bust government budgets.
世界的老齡人口正在以驚人的速度增長(zhǎng)，并且他們?cè)交钤介L(zhǎng)。在未來(lái)的20年里，全球65歲以上的老年人數(shù)量將會(huì)翻番，從6000萬(wàn)到11億。根據(jù)20世紀(jì)的經(jīng)驗(yàn)來(lái)看，當(dāng)長(zhǎng)壽意味著更長(zhǎng)的退休時(shí)間和更短的工作時(shí)間時(shí)，很多人都會(huì)感覺(jué)到明顯的經(jīng)濟(jì)增速減緩和長(zhǎng)期經(jīng)濟(jì)停滯，同時(shí)越來(lái)越多的養(yǎng)老金申領(lǐng)人口會(huì)導(dǎo)致政府的預(yù)算破產(chǎn)。
But the notion of a sharp division between the working young and the idle old misses a new trend, the growing gap between the skilled and the unskilled. Employment rates are falling among younger unskilled people, whereas older skilled folk are working longer. The divide is most extreme in America, where well-educated baby-boomers are putting off retirement while many less-skilled younger people have dropped out of the workforce.
當(dāng)我們只關(guān)注于工作年輕人與閑散老年人的嚴(yán)重分化現(xiàn)象時(shí)，往往忽略了一個(gè)新的趨勢(shì)，即不同人勞動(dòng)技能之間日益加劇的差異。缺乏技能的年輕人的就業(yè)率在下降，而經(jīng)驗(yàn)豐富的高技術(shù)人才卻工作得越來(lái)越久。在美國(guó)，這樣的分歧為嚴(yán)重，嬰兒潮時(shí)期出生的、受過(guò)良好教育的人們延遲退休，從而將技能不足的年輕人排擠出勞動(dòng)力市場(chǎng)。
Policy is partly responsible. Many European governments have abandoned policies that used to encourage people to retire early. Rising life expectancy, combined with the replacement of generous defined-benefit pension plans with stingier defined-contribution ones, means that even the better-off must work longer to have a comfortable retirement. But the changing nature of work also plays a big role. Pay has risen sharply for the highly educated, and those people continue to reap rich rewards into old age because these days the educated elderly are more productive than their predecessors. Technological change may well reinforce that shift: the skills that complement computers, from management expertise to creativity, do not necessarily decline with age.
政策也要為此承擔(dān)一部分責(zé)任。很多歐洲政府已經(jīng)撤銷了鼓勵(lì)人們提早退休的政策。增長(zhǎng)的壽命，再加上養(yǎng)老金計(jì)劃從回報(bào)豐厚的固定收益型轉(zhuǎn)為日趨緊縮的固定繳費(fèi)型，這都意味著經(jīng)濟(jì)條件較好的人都不得不工作更長(zhǎng)時(shí)間以保障一個(gè)安逸的晚年。另外，工作性質(zhì)的改變也是原因之一。受過(guò)高等教育的人的工資顯著增加，因?yàn)檫@些人的生產(chǎn)能力比前人更高，所以他們能將所得的高額酬勞儲(chǔ)蓄起來(lái)作為晚年的保障。科技的轉(zhuǎn)型也會(huì)增強(qiáng)這樣的改變：像管理技巧和創(chuàng)造力這種不能夠被計(jì)算機(jī)所取代的能力，不一定會(huì)因年齡老化而失去其價(jià)值。
This trend will benefit not just fortunate oldies but also, in some ways, society as a whole. Growth will slow less dramatically than expected; government budgets will be in better shape, as high earners pay taxes for longer. Rich countries with lots of well-educated older people will find the burden of ageing easier to bear than places like China, where half of all 50-to-64-year-olds did not complete primary-school education.
這種趨勢(shì)不僅對(duì)那些幸運(yùn)的老人們有好處，也令社會(huì)從中得益。經(jīng)濟(jì)增長(zhǎng)不會(huì)像預(yù)期中那樣急劇減緩：政府預(yù)算看起來(lái)會(huì)好得多，因?yàn)楦呤杖胝邥?huì)納稅地更久。擁有大量受過(guò)良好教育的老年人的發(fā)達(dá)國(guó)家，其人口老齡化的負(fù)擔(dān)會(huì)比其他地區(qū)輕得多，比如50至64歲人口中一半都沒(méi)有完成小學(xué)教育的中國(guó)。
At the other end of the social scale, however, things look grim. Manual work gets harder as people get older, and public pensions look more attractive to those on low wages and the unemployed. In the lexicon of popular hate-figures, work-shirking welfare queens breeding at the taxpayer's expense may be replaced by deadbeat grandads collecting taxpayer handouts while their hard-working contemporaries strive on.
然而，從社會(huì)的另一個(gè)層面來(lái)講情形并非如此樂(lè)觀。隨著年齡增長(zhǎng)，體力勞動(dòng)將會(huì)顯得力不從心，因此對(duì)于低收入者和失業(yè)者來(lái)說(shuō)公共養(yǎng)老金會(huì)更有吸引力。招人討厭的公眾形象可能會(huì)從“好吃懶做、靠納稅人供養(yǎng)的福利皇后”變成“欠債不還、當(dāng)同齡人還在努力工作時(shí)卻只會(huì)伸手向納稅人討救濟(jì)品的養(yǎng)老金爺爺”。(“福利皇后”通常指的是中年黑人婦女，她們每天無(wú)所事事，子女也不做事，光吃社會(huì)福利——譯者注)
Nor are all the effects on the economy beneficial. Wealthy old people will accumulate more savings, which will weaken demand. Inequality will increase and a growing share of wealth will eventually be transferred to the next generation via inheritance, entrenching the division between winners and losers still further.
對(duì)經(jīng)濟(jì)的影響并不全是有利的。富裕的老年人會(huì)積累更多的儲(chǔ)蓄，因此會(huì)降低需求。社會(huì)不平等會(huì)增加，其中很大一部分財(cái)富會(huì)以遺產(chǎn)的形式轉(zhuǎn)移給下一代，使得成功者與失敗者之間的貧富差距鴻溝日益加大。
One likely response is to impose higher inheritance taxes. So long as they replaced less-fair taxes, that might make sense. They would probably encourage old people to spend their cash rather than salt it away. But governments should focus not on redistributing income but on generating more of it by reforming retirement and education.
一個(gè)可行的措施是施行高額遺產(chǎn)稅。只要能夠代替其他更缺乏公平的稅收，遺產(chǎn)稅還是較為合理的。這能使老年人花掉他們的積蓄而不是存起來(lái)。但政府也應(yīng)該通過(guò)改革退休政策和教育體系來(lái)創(chuàng)造更多收入，而不能僅僅停留在重新分配收入的層面。
Age should no longer determine the appropriate end of a working life. Mandatory retirement ages and pension rules that discourage people from working longer should go. Welfare should reflect the greater opportunities open to the higher-skilled. Pensions should become more progressive. At the same time, this trend underlines the importance of increasing public investment in education at all stages of life, so that more people acquire the skills they need to thrive in the modern labour market. Today, many governments are understandably loth to spend money retraining older folk who are likely to retire soon. But if people can work for longer, that investment makes much more sense. Deadbeat 60-year-olds are unlikely to become computer scientists, but they could learn useful vocational skills, such as caring for the growing number of very old people.
工作年限不應(yīng)該被年齡所限制。強(qiáng)制性退休年齡和養(yǎng)老金制度會(huì)讓人們不想工作那么久，所以是不合理的，應(yīng)該被淘汰。社會(huì)福利應(yīng)該能夠反映出針對(duì)高技術(shù)人才的廣闊機(jī)遇。養(yǎng)老金應(yīng)該更加循序漸進(jìn)。與此同時(shí)，這個(gè)趨勢(shì)也顯示出加強(qiáng)對(duì)各個(gè)年齡段的公共教育投資的重要性，令更多的人獲得能夠在現(xiàn)代勞動(dòng)力市場(chǎng)中得以立足的技能。如今，很多政府都懶得為那些馬上就要退休的老年人花錢(qián)進(jìn)行重新培訓(xùn)，這是可以理解的。但是，如果人們能夠工作的更久，這種投資是有意義的。年屆60且欠債不還的人不太可能成為計(jì)算機(jī)科學(xué)家。但他們能夠?qū)W習(xí)一些職業(yè)技能，例如照顧數(shù)量越來(lái)越多的老年人。
Old power
老人的力量
How likely are governments to make these changes? Look around the rich world today, and it is hard to be optimistic. The swelling ranks of older voters, and their disproportionate propensity to vote, have left politicians keener to pander to them than to implement disruptive reforms. Germany, despite being the fastest-ageing country in Europe, plans to cut the statutory retirement age for some people. In America both Social Security (the public pension scheme) and the fast-growing system of disability benefits remain untouched by reform. Politicians need to convince less-skilled older voters that it is in their interests to go on working. Doing so will not be easy. But the alternative—economic stagnation and even greater inequality—is worse.
政府作出改變的可能性有多大?放眼當(dāng)今的發(fā)達(dá)國(guó)家，情況不容樂(lè)觀。越來(lái)越多的老年選民會(huì)令投票結(jié)果失衡，政治家為了迎合他們而不會(huì)做出根本性的改革。盡管德國(guó)是歐洲地區(qū)老齡化速度快的國(guó)家，也計(jì)劃對(duì)某部分人降低退休年齡。在美國(guó)，社保(公共養(yǎng)老金體系)和快速增長(zhǎng)的殘障人士福利體系都被隔絕在改革的進(jìn)程之外。政治家需要說(shuō)服那些缺乏勞動(dòng)技能的老年選民：讓你們繼續(xù)工作是為了你們好。這么做可不容易。但是若非如此的話，后果將是經(jīng)濟(jì)蕭條和更大的社會(huì)不平等，那就更糟糕了。