欧洲人对收入平等问题更悲观

Europeans are more pessimistic about how equal their societies actually are, while in the US people are wedded to the American dream and believe society is fairer than it really is.

欧洲人对本国社会的实际平等程度更加悲观，而美国人则紧抱美国梦、他们眼中的美国社会比实际上更加平等。

German research sheds new light on the political challenges involved in tax, income distribution and social fairness and raises questions in the equality debate revived by French economist Thomas Piketty.

德国的一项研究为涉及税收、收入分配和社会公平的各项政治挑战带来了新的启发，在由法国经济学家托马斯•皮凯蒂(Thomas Piketty)重新点燃的不公平辩论中提出了问题。

The study, to be presented at Germany’s Lindau conference this week, “suggests that in the political debate on income distribution, it is often not the facts that count but [perceptions]”, said Professor Michael Hüther, director of the Cologne-based IW economic institute.

德国科隆经济研究所(IW)负责人迈克尔•许特(Michael Hüther)教授表示，本周将在德国林道(Lindau)会议上发表的这份研究报告“似乎表明在这场有关收入分配的政治辩论中，重要的往往不是事实，而是（印象）”。

Author Judith Niehues compared actual and perceived income levels in the US and 23 EU countries, using economic data and polling of about 1,000 people in each country.

研究报告的作者朱迪丝•尼许斯(Judith Niehues)利用经济数据，并在每个国家对大约1000人进行调查，比较了美国和23个欧盟(EU)国家的实际收入水平和本国人认为的收入水平。

She found that Europeans underestimate the proportion of middle-income earners and overestimate the proportion of the poor, commonly defined as people on incomes of 60 per cent or less of the median.

她发现，欧洲人低估了中等收入者的比例，高估了穷人的比例，后者通常定义为收入达到或低于中值收入60%的人士。

Only the US has a more unequal income distribution than its citizens imagined, with many more poor people.

只有美国的实际收入分配情况比其国民想象的更为不平等，穷人的数量也大大超过他们认为的。

In Europe, people on middle incomes are far more numerous than those at the bottom or the top of the pay ladder. So a European income-distribution chart resembles a barrel, with a bulge in the middle. But many see it as a tower standing on a broad plinth, with a small elite, a modest middle-class and a big base of low earners.

在欧洲，中等收入者的数量远远超过位于收入阶梯最底端或最顶端者。因此，欧洲的收入分配呈桶形，中间部分比两头更鼓。但在许多人眼中，欧洲的收入分配为塔形，基座宽，塔尖小，中产阶层不多不少，底部有庞大的低收入人群。

This is particularly true in Germany and France, where people see income distribution as far more unequal than it is. In the UK and Spain, where distribution is less equal, perceptions are more accurate.

德国和法国尤其如此，这两国人眼中的本国收入分配不平等程度远远超过实际情况。在收入分配更不平等的英国和西班牙，人们的印象更为准确。

More than 30 per cent of Americans have incomes of 60 per cent or less of the median. But most people think that only 24 per cent of their fellow citizens are at this level. “The middle class is truly smaller in the USA and the lower income group considerably more numerous than its citizens suppose,” says a summary of the study, which suggests this might be partly linked to social mobility in the US. People may be less focused on inequality if they think they are climbing the income ladder, explaining why pressure for redistributive taxation is lower in the US.

逾30%美国人的收入刚刚达到或低于中值收入60%。但大多数美国人认为这个比例仅为24%。研究摘要称，“在美国，实际的中产阶层人数比其国民想象的更少，较低收入人群则庞大得多”。报告提出，部分原因可能是美国的社会流动性较大。如果人们认为自己在收入阶梯上的位置正在攀升，那么他们或许不会那么关注不平等，这解释了为何在美国通过征税对财富进行再分配的民意压力较低。

In Europe, the gap between perception and reality is particularly wide in former communist states, with citizens convinced their countries are far less equal than they really are.

在欧洲，国民的印象和实际情况差异格外大的是那些前共产党统治国家，这些国家的国民认为的不平等程度远远超过实际情况。

The report adds that levels of concern about inequality tend to be greater in countries with higher levels of perceived inequality. More than half of Germans and 79 per cent of French think income differentials are too great, against about 30 per cent of Britons and Spaniards.

报告补充称，在国民认为的不平等程度超过实际情况的国家，有关不平等的担忧往往更强烈。逾一半德国人、以及79%的法国人认为，本国的收入差距太大，而在英国和西班牙，持这种看法者的比例约为30%。