窮人的反撲與富人的反省 工商時報: ~, z1 ^2 N1 i) Y; f( M& ?$ b( f
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* K" |9 _8 y9 X$ n8 R5 Y2 w2 G. M舉凡一個人的行為改變，主要源自兩種力量的驅使，一為自己的不斷內省，另一則為他人施予的壓力。貧富差距一直是人類社會最複雜與困擾的問題，其中充滿了文明進步追求的價值爭議，更涵蓋了人性本質蘊藏的情緒對立。但不可否認的是，每當貧富問題嚴重惡化時，都會為人類社會帶來大變革，不論是在思想領域的發展上，或是在解決問題的實際行動上。近來，我們一方面看到美國民眾「占領華爾街」示威活動的益愈擴大蔓延，另一方面卻也同時看到類如巴菲特這樣的全球首富，公開表示願意主動繳納更多的稅負。面對這種反撲與反省並存的情境，不啻為貧富差距問題找到一個解決的新契機，其背後嚴肅的意義，我們不應輕忽，尤其是政府的政策反應與作為。 5 q* M# j. ?# T: T: LTVBNOW 含有熱門話題，最新最快電視，軟體，遊戲，電影，動漫及日常生活及興趣交流等資訊。0 I* Z U. b6 ~
「占領華爾街」行動發起於9月17日的美國紐約，靈感的啟發係來自於今年的埃及革命，該期間民眾在開羅塔利爾廣場的集會與示威運動，終至達成推翻獨裁專制政權的民主勝利。只是，這次「占領華爾街」的訴求是社會公平與貧富差距問題，而抗議的對象則是貪婪無度的企業大亨。拜臉書等網路社群工具之賜，此一運動，不但迅速在美國遍地開花，更如響斯應地擴大為全球性的「占領」狂潮。台北也在日昨舉辦「占領101大樓」的活動，雖然實際到場群眾只有400多人，但已充分顯示台灣社會呼應國際新情勢的意願，並凸顯出台灣民眾對社會公平正義的相同渴望。可惜這次行動未及擴大串連各地市井小民與弱勢團體，以致聲勢不夠浩大，社會關注不足。期待下一次「占領凱達格蘭大道」的抗議活動，能引爆出更多的輿論焦點與壓力。tvb now,tvbnow,bttvb6 M+ B% h( Y8 f1 x R
$ N+ Y! @+ ?; f) u/ Z; ?6 ftvb now,tvbnow,bttvb美國諾貝爾經濟學獎得主Joseph Stiglitz，在今年5月的Vanity Fair雜誌上發表了一篇名為「Of the 1％, by the 1％, for the 1％」的文章。他殘酷地指出美國奉為立國精神象徵的「Of the people, by the people, for the people」(民有、民治、民享)，如今已變成被社會極少數1％的人所控制與把持，對美國而言，這真是莫大的諷刺。1％頂端美國人的每年所得約占全部所得的25％，並且擁有全美國財富的40％。尤有甚者，這個趨勢還在繼續惡化中。Stiglitz更嚴厲地譴責「以經濟成長可以帶動所得分配平均」的謬論；他明確指出，過去10年這1％的人所得增加了18％，但那些中產家庭的所得卻反而下降。「Arising tide lifts all boats.」乃是一句騙人的神話，99％的民眾都變成被遺棄的犧牲者。這次占領行動凸顯的就是99％與1％之間的抗爭。TVBNOW 含有熱門話題，最新最快電視，軟體，遊戲，電影，動漫及日常生活及興趣交流等資訊。& d7 t, d# D# h' S: }6 Q2 P
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美國歐巴馬總統最近向國會提出整套「經濟成長與赤字減少方案」，其中特別呼應巴菲特的主張，決定開徵「富人稅」。雖然該案日前被參議院否決，但歐巴馬政府表示仍將繼續努力與國會協商，爭取通過的機會。任何租稅改革的推動都會遭遇反對的阻力與困難，尤其是政黨間的惡鬥，更是租稅公平的最大障礙與威脅。在美國，有99％民眾的奮起抗議，有1％富人的自覺反省，有諾貝爾經濟學家的鏗鏘諍言，更有政府堅持的改革動能。反觀我國近年也同樣面對租稅不公與貧富差距問題，但99％民眾的聲音，1％富人的勇氣，學者的春秋判筆，以及政府的專業決心等，何時才能整合與轉化成改革的力量？作者: felicity2010 時間: 2011-10-20 08:55 AM
本帖最後由 felicity2010 於 2011-10-20 09:12 AM 編輯 6 ^* K& v- c+ |) ETVBNOW 含有熱門話題，最新最快電視，軟體，遊戲，電影，動漫及日常生活及興趣交流等資訊。7 H% B/ Y, k6 t l Of the 1%, by the1%, for the 1% Joseph E. Stiglitz' Q% b9 I7 p& D( m6 j3 v
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[attach]1498577[/attach] 6 P" D# ~( e; hTVBNOW 含有熱門話題，最新最快電視，軟體，遊戲，電影，動漫及日常生活及興趣交流等資訊。tvb now,tvbnow,bttvb) w( H( c8 `9 A7 | THE FAT AND THE FURIOUS The top 1 percent may have the best houses, educations, and lifestyles,says the author, but “their fate is bound up with how the other 99 percent live.”tvb now,tvbnow,bttvb/ |5 o4 x6 ?% ?6 u/ \
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: w* b( H9 b+ l6 N. i/ `; {Americans have been watching protests against oppressive regimes that concentrate massive wealth in the hands of an elite few. Yet in our own democracy, 1 percent of the people take nearly a quarter of the nation’s income—an inequality even the wealthy will come to regret. & Z4 F' ?- }6 V. z, X% [( t4 `: r L 4 s' ]. a0 Z- @ U/ PTVBNOW 含有熱門話題，最新最快電視，軟體，遊戲，電影，動漫及日常生活及興趣交流等資訊。It’s no use pretending that what has obviously happened has not in fact happened. The upper 1 percent of Americans are now taking in nearly a quarter of the nation’s income every year. In terms of wealth rather than income, the top 1 percent control 40 percent. Their lot in life has improved considerably.Twenty-five years ago, the corresponding figures were 12 percent and 33percent. One response might be to celebrate the ingenuity and drive that brought good fortune to these people, and to contend that a rising tide lifts all boats. That response would be misguided. While the top 1 percent have seen their incomes rise 18 percent over the past decade, those in the middle have actually seen their incomes fall. For men with only high-school degrees, the decline has been precipitous—12 percent in the last quarter-century alone. All the growth in recent decades—and more—has gone to those at the top. In terms of income equality, America lags behind any country in the old, ossified Europe that President George W. Bush used to deride. Among our closest counterparts are Russia with its oligarchs and Iran. While many of the old centers of inequality in Latin America, such as Brazil, have been striving in recent years, rather successfully, to improve the plight of the poor and reduce gaps in income, America has allowed inequality to grow. 2 }; M4 Y% m; k5.39.217.76. D- [1 ?( | x+ x# S
Economists long ago tried to justify the vast inequalities that seemed so troubling in the mid-19th century—inequalities that are but a pale shadow of what we are seeing in America today. The justification they came up with was called “marginal-productivity theory.” In a nutshell, this theory associated higher incomes with higher productivity and a greater contribution to society. It is a theory that has always been cherished by the rich. Evidence for its validity, however, remains thin. The corporate executives who helped bring on the recession of the past three years—whose contribution to our society, and to their own companies, has been massively negative—went on to receive large bonuses. In some cases, companies were so embarrassed about calling such rewards “performance bonuses” that they felt compelled to change the name to “retention bonuses” (even if the only thing being retained was bad performance). Those who have contributed great positive innovations to our society, from the pioneers of genetic understanding to the pioneers of the Information Age, have received a pittance compared with those responsible for the financial innovations that brought our global economy to the brink of ruin.公仔箱論壇( d; |# H; A s7 x& t3 g! \& x7 I: }' M
8 d& M- u& ]/ ITVBNOW 含有熱門話題，最新最快電視，軟體，遊戲，電影，動漫及日常生活及興趣交流等資訊。Some people look at income inequality and shrug their shoulders. So what if this person gains and that person loses? What matters, they argue, is not how the pie is divided but the size of the pie. That argument is fundamentally wrong. An economy in which most citizens are doing worse year after year—an economy like America’s—is not likely to do well over the long haul. There are several reasons for this. : F; d. ^ ?+ x2 j% x" f) z5.39.217.76 2 z. a* J" A: o& XFirst, growing inequality is the flip side of something else: shrinking opportunity. Whenever we diminish equality of opportunity, it means that we are not using some of our most valuable assets—our people—in the most productive way possible. Second, many of the distortions that lead to inequality—such as those associated with monopoly power and preferential tax treatment for special interests—undermine the efficiency of the economy. This new inequality goes onto create new distortions, undermining efficiency even further. To give just one example, far too many of our most talented young people, seeing the astronomical rewards, have gone into finance rather than into fields that would lead to a more productive and healthy economy. 7 L: I* w% [. r# f4 O: B' ^公仔箱論壇 * t9 Y3 {& ~* V: }公仔箱論壇Third, and perhaps most important, a modern economy requires “collective action”—it needs government to invest in infrastructure, education, and technology. The United States and the world have benefited greatly from government-sponsored research that led to the Internet, to advances in public health, and so on. But America has long suffered from an under-investment in infrastructure (look at the condition of our highways and bridges, our railroads and airports), in basic research, and in education at all levels. Further cutbacks in these areas lie ahead.公仔箱論壇2 k A. S2 C8 W. b) t. ^8 }
6 n5 e# H1 O2 j3 b2 B* ]# R# JTVBNOW 含有熱門話題，最新最快電視，軟體，遊戲，電影，動漫及日常生活及興趣交流等資訊。None of this should come as a surprise—it is simply what happens when a society’s wealth distribution becomes lopsided. The more divided a society becomes in terms of wealth, the more reluctant the wealthy become to spend money on common needs. The rich don’t need to rely on government for parks or education or medical care or personal security—they can buy all these things for themselves. In the process, they become more distant from ordinary people,losing whatever empathy they may once have had. They also worry about strong government—one that could use its powers to adjust the balance, take some of their wealth, and invest it for the common good. The top 1 percent may complain about the kind of government we have in America, but in truth they like it just fine: too gridlocked to re-distribute, too divided to do anything but lower taxes. / k) w) R8 o- Ztvb now,tvbnow,bttvb3 t' }: f8 N9 w; v9 {, ]$ H" H( i
Economists are not sure how to fully explain the growing inequality in America. The ordinary dynamics of supply and demand have certainly played a role: labor saving technologies have reduced the demand for many “good” middle-class, blue-collar jobs. Globalization has created a worldwide marketplace, pitting expensive unskilled workers in America against cheap unskilled workers overseas. Social changes have also played a role—for instance, the decline of unions, which once represented a third of American workers and now represent about 12 percent.tvb now,tvbnow,bttvb; D) W* {. K- ?( l0 _3 v
( u) ^! k3 p! d! z9 g! y5.39.217.76But one big part of the reason we have so much inequality is that the top 1 percent want it that way. The most obvious example involves tax policy.Lowering tax rates on capital gains, which is how the rich receive a large portion of their income, has given the wealthiest Americans close to a free ride.Monopolies and near monopolies have always been a source of economic power—from John D. Rockefeller at the beginning of the last century to Bill Gates at the end. Lax enforcement of anti-trust laws, especially during Republican administrations, has been a godsend to the top 1 percent. Much of today’s inequality is due to manipulation of the financial system, enabled by changes in the rules that have been bought and paid for by the financial industry itself—one of its best investments ever. The government lent money to financial institutions at close to 0 percent interest and provided generous bailouts on favorable terms when all else failed. Regulators turned a blind eye to a lack of transparency and to conflicts of interest.: C& [- g: l4 r
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When you look at the sheer volume of wealth controlled by the top 1percent in this country, it’s tempting to see our growing inequality as a quintessentially American achievement—we started way behind the pack, but now we’re doing inequality on a world-class level. And it looks as if we’ll be building on this achievement for years to come, because what made it possible is self-reinforcing. Wealth begets power, which begets more wealth. During the savings-and-loan scandal of the 1980s—a scandal whose dimensions, by today’s standards, seem almost quaint—the banker Charles Keating was asked by a congressional committee whether the $1.5 million he had spread among a few key elected officials could actually buy influence. “I certainly hope so,” he replied. The Supreme Court, in its recent Citizens United case, has enshrined the right of corporations to buy government, by removing limitations on campaign spending. The personal and the political are today in perfect alignment. Virtually all U.S. senators, and most of the representatives in the House, are members of the top 1 percent when they arrive, are kept in office by money from the top 1 percent, and know that if they serve the top 1 percent well they will be rewarded by the top 1 percent when they leave office. By and large, the key executive-branch policymakers on trade and economic policy also come from the top 1 percent. When pharmaceutical companies receive a trillion-dollar gift—through legislation prohibiting the government, the largest buyer of drugs, from bargaining over price—it should not come as cause for wonder. It should not make jaws drop that a tax bill cannot emerge from Congress unless big tax cuts are put in place for the wealthy. Given the power of the top 1 percent, this is the way you would expect the system to work. ! Y5 n' O4 y% @# p1 Ntvb now,tvbnow,bttvb - a# G# r$ ]! }% x, S, R3 X, r( h* Z; _TVBNOW 含有熱門話題，最新最快電視，軟體，遊戲，電影，動漫及日常生活及興趣交流等資訊。America’s inequality distorts our society in every conceivable way. There is, for one thing, a well-documented lifestyle effect—people outside the top 1 percent increasingly live beyond their means. Trickle-down economics may be a chimera, but trickle-down behaviorism is very real. Inequality massively distorts our foreign policy. The top 1 percent rarely serve in the military—the reality is that the“all-volunteer” army does not pay enough to attract their sons and daughters,and patriotism goes only so far. Plus, the wealthiest class feels no pinch from higher taxes when the nation goes to war: borrowed money will pay for all that.Foreign policy, by definition, is about the balancing of national interests and national resources. With the top 1 percent in charge, and paying no price, the notion of balance and restraint goes out the window. There is no limit to the adventures we can undertake; corporations and contractors stand only to gain.The rules of economic globalization are likewise designed to benefit the rich:they encourage competition among countries for business, which drives down taxes on corporations, weakens health and environmental protections, and undermines what used to be viewed as the “core” labor rights, which include the right to collective bargaining. Imagine what the world might look like if the rules were designed instead to encourage competition among countries for workers. Governments would compete in providing economic security, low taxes on ordinary wage earners, good education, and a clean environment—things workers care about. But the top 1 percent don’t need to care.5.39.217.765 o" P- ^5 T# a) ~) T- d) h1 a$ s
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Or, more accurately, they think they don’t. Of all the costs imposed on our society by the top 1 percent, perhaps the greatest is this: the erosion of our sense of identity, in which fair play, equality of opportunity, and a sense of community are so important. America has long prided itself on being a fair society, where everyone has an equal chance of getting ahead, but the statistics suggest otherwise: the chances of a poor citizen, or even a middle-class citizen, making it to the top in America are smaller than in many countries of Europe. The cards are stacked against them. It is this sense of an unjust system without opportunity that has given rise to the conflagrations in the Middle East: rising food prices and growing and persistent youth unemployment simply served as kindling.With youth unemployment in America at around 20 percent (and in some locations,and among some socio-demographic groups, at twice that); with one out of six Americans desiring a full-time job not able to get one; with one out of seven Americans on food stamps (and about the same number suffering from “food insecurity”)—given all this, there is ample evidence that something has blocked the vaunted “trickling down” from the top 1 percent to everyone else. All of this is having the predictable effect of creating alienation—voter turnout among those in their 20s in the last election stood at 21 percent, comparable to the unemployment rate.; P$ B b; s# h
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In recent weeks we have watched people taking to the streets by the millions to protest political, economic, and social conditions in the oppressive societies they inhabit. Governments have been toppled in Egypt and Tunisia. Protests have erupted in Libya, Yemen, and Bahrain. The ruling families elsewhere in the region look on nervously from their air-conditioned penthouses—will they be next? They are right to worry. These are societies where a minuscule fraction of the population—less than 1 percent—controls the lion’s share of the wealth; where wealth is a main determinant of power; where entrenched corruption of one sort or another is a way of life; and where the wealthiest often stand actively in the way of policies that would improve life for people in general.TVBNOW 含有熱門話題，最新最快電視，軟體，遊戲，電影，動漫及日常生活及興趣交流等資訊。: Z8 t' N- f# [% P
* _) I, p) a. K8 aAs we gaze out at the popular fervor in the streets, one question to ask ourselves is this: When will it come to America? In important ways, our own country has become like one of these distant, troubled places.tvb now,tvbnow,bttvb" N7 X3 d* \6 A& c, n) O: K Y
6 K9 ^4 A: ?' T" ]Alexis de Tocqueville once described what he saw as a chief part of the peculiar genius of American society—something he called “self-interest properly understood.” The last two words were the key. Everyone possesses self-interest in a narrow sense: I want what’s good for me right now! Self-interest “properly understood” is different. It means appreciating that paying attention to everyone else’s self-interest—in other words, the common welfare—is in fact a precondition for one’s own ultimate well-being. Tocqueville was not suggesting that there was anything noble or idealistic about this outlook—in fact, he was suggesting the opposite. It was a mark of American pragmatism. Those canny Americans understood a basic fact: looking out for the other guy isn’t just good for the soul—it’s good for business.tvb now,tvbnow,bttvb5 v9 I2 ?3 } k `
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The top 1 percent have the best houses, the best educations, the best doctors, and the best lifestyles, but there is one thing that money doesn’t seem to have bought: an understanding that their fate is bound up with how the other 99 percent live. Throughout history, this is something that the top 1percent eventually do learn. Too late.tvb now,tvbnow,bttvb3 N1 b% ~* l0 p. F
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約瑟夫·尤金·斯蒂格利茨（Joseph Eugene "Joe" Stiglitz，1943年2月9日－），美國經濟學家，哥倫比亞大學教員。他於1979年獲得約翰·貝茨·克拉克獎（John Bates Clark Medal），2001年獲得諾貝爾經濟學獎。斯蒂格利茨曾擔任世界銀行資深副總裁與首席經濟師，提出經濟全球化的觀點。他還曾經在國際貨幣基金組織任職。2008年，他針對華爾街的房產泡沫，提出了金融改革的幾點看法。作者: felicity2010 時間: 2011-10-20 09:08 AM
