Today 40 million Americans are indebted for their passage to the new economy.
现在，四千万美国人为了奔小康而背上债务。
Too poor to pay their way through college, they now owe lenders more than one trillion US dollars.
穷到无法支付自己的大学学费，这些人的负债总额已超过一万亿美元。
They do find what jobs they can get to pay off a debt that is secured on their person.
的确，他们能找到工作来偿还以个人名义担保的债务。
In America, even a bankrupt gambler gets a second chance.
在美国，即使是破产的赌徒也有重来的机会。
But it is nearly impossible for an American to get discharged their student loan debts.
但是一个美国人想要还清其助学贷款却几乎是不可能的。
Once upon a time in America, going to college did not mean graduating with debt.
以前在美国，上大学不意味着要负债毕业。
My friend Paul's father graduated from Colorado State University on the GI Bill.
我的朋友保罗，他的父亲在退伍军人法案的帮助下，从科罗拉多州立大学毕业了。
For his generation, higher education was free or almost free, because it was thought of as a public good. Not anymore.
他那个时代，高等教育基本上是免费的，因为当时高等教育被认为是一种公益事业。现在不是了。
When Paul also graduated from Colorado State University, he paid for his English degree by working part-time.
当保罗也从科罗拉多州立大学毕业时，他是通过兼职才拿到了他的英语学位。
30 years ago, higher education tuition was affordable, reasonable,
30年前，高等教育的学费定价合理，大多数人都能支付得起，
and what debts you accumulated, you paid off by graduation date. Not anymore.
你欠下的债务在毕业的时候也能还清。现在就不可能了。
Paul's daughter followed in his footsteps, but with one difference:
保罗的女儿遵循父辈的足迹，有一点不同的是，
when she graduated five years ago, it was with a whopping debt.
五年前，她毕业的时候就背负了巨大的债务。
Students like Kate have to take on a loan
像凯特那样的孩子只能贷款，
because the cost of higher education has become unaffordable for many if not most American families. But so what?
因为高等教育的费用对于大多数家庭来说都难以承受。但那又怎样呢？
Getting into debt to buy an expensive education is not all bad if you could pay it off with the increased income that you earned from it.
如果将来可以赚更多的钱来还债，那现在借钱来读书也是不错的。
But that's where the rubber meets the road.
但是要把理论和实际相结合。
Even a college grad earned 10 percent more in 2001 than she did in 2013.
在一所大学中，2001年的毕业生要比2013年毕业的她收入多出10%。
So... tuition costs up, public funding down, family incomes diminished, personal incomes weak.
所以，学费越来越贵，公共资金支持越来越少，家庭存款越来越少，个人收入越来越低。
Is it any wonder that more than a quarter of those who must cannot make their student loan payments?
所以这也难怪为什么有四分之一的学生肯定没有办法还清他们的助学贷款了吧。
The worst of times can be the best of times, because certain truths flash up in ways that you can't ignore.
最坏的时代也可能是最好的时代，因为你无法忽视很多血淋淋的真相。
I want to speak of three of them today.
我今天想说三点。
1.2 trillion dollars of debts for diplomas make it abundantly obvious that higher education is a consumer product you can buy.
1.2万亿的助学贷款债务，非常明显地证明了高等学位已经变成了可以购买的消费品。
All of us talk about education just as the economists do now,
与经济学家一样，我们把教育，
as an investment that you make to improve the human stock by training them for work.
看成是一种通过培训来提升人类的投资。
As an investment you make to sort and classify people so that employers can hire them more easily.
是一种将人排序分类，从而帮助雇主挑选人才的投资。
The U.S. News And World Report ranks colleges just as the consumer report rates washing machines.
美国新闻与世界报道对大学进行排名，就像顾客为洗衣机排名一样。
The language is peppered with barbarisms.
措辞往往很犀利。
Teachers are called "service providers," students are called "consumers."
教师们被称为“提供服务者”，学生们则是“消费者”。
Sociology and Shakespeare and soccer and science, all of these are "content."
社会学、莎士比亚、足球和科学，所有这些都是“(商品的)内容”。
Student debt is profitable. Only not on you. Your debt fattens the profit of the student loan industry.
学生贷款是有利可图的，但不是通过学生来实现利润。你的债务则增加了学生贷款市场的利润。
The two 800-pound gorillas of which -- Sallie Mae and Navient -- posted last year a combined profit of 1.2 billion dollars.
两个庞大的学生贷款供应商Sallie Mae和Navient，去年一共赚取12亿美元。
And just like home mortgages, student loans can be bundled and packaged and sliced and diced, and sold on Wall Street.
就像房贷一样，学生贷款也可以捆绑或分割，并在华尔街出售。
And colleges and universities that invest in these securitized loans profit twice.
那些投资于证券化贷款的大学和学院便可从中获利两次。
Once from your tuition, and then again from the interest on debt.
首先是从你缴纳的学费，然后再从债务利息中获利。
With all that money to be made,
有如此可观的利润，
are we surprised that some in the higher education business have begun to engage in false advertising, in bait and switch
那么一些高等教育企业开始打虚假广告，通过引诱或偷换概念，
in exploiting the very ignorance that they pretend to educate?
来剥削那些毫不知情的、这些企业假装去“培养”的学生，就毫不稀奇了。
Third: diplomas are a brand.
第三，学位是一种品牌。
Many years ago my teacher wrote, "When students are treated as consumers, they're made prisoners of addiction and envy."
许多年前我的老师写道：“当学生被当成消费者，上瘾和嫉妒就会应运而生。”
Just as consumers can be sold and resold upgraded versions of an iPhone, so also people can be sold more and more education.
商家可以不断将最新款的iPhone卖给消费者，学校也可以向人们兜售教育。
College is the new high school, we already say that. But why stop there?
大学是新的高中。我们早已深知这点。但是我们就此停止吗？
People can be upsold on certifications and recertifications, master's degrees, doctoral degrees.
人们想考取证书、认证新的证书，取得硕士、甚至博士学位。
Higher education is also marketed as a status object.
高等教育是一种地位象征。
Buy a degree, much like you do a Lexus of a Louis Vuitton bag, to distinguish yourself from others.
购买一个学位，与买一辆雷克萨斯轿车或一个路易威登包一样，都能彰显你的与众不同。
So you can be the object of envy of others. Diplomas are a brand.
这样你就可以成为别人羡慕妒忌的对象。文凭是一种品牌。
But these truths are often times hidden by a very noisy sales pitch.
然而这些真相通常都被嘈杂的商业宣传所掩盖。
There is not a day that goes by without some policy guy on television telling us,
每一天都有一些讲政策的人在电视上说：
"A college degree is absolutely essential to get on that up escalator to a middle-class life."
“拥有大学学位是过上中产阶级的生活的必需品”。
And the usual evidence offered is the college premium: a college grad who makes on average 56 percent more than a high school grad.
通常此言论的证据是大学溢价：大学毕业生的收入，平均要比高中毕业生的收入高出56%。
Let's look at that number more carefully,
让我们更仔细地看一下统计数据，
because on the face of it, it seems to belie the stories we all hear about college grads working as baristas and cashiers.
因为这和我们平时听到的版本不太一样，我们通常听到的是大学毕业生在咖啡店打工或是做收银员。

Of 100 people who enroll in any form of post-secondary education,
在每一百名受过中学后教育的人中，
45 do not complete it in a timely fashion, for a number of reasons, including financial.
有45名学生未能及时毕业，原因各一，其中包括经济因素。
Of the 55 that do graduate, two will remain unemployed, and another 18 are underemployed.
而在55位顺利毕业的人当中，2位将找不到工作、18位的才华得不到充分施展。
So, college grads earn more than high school grads,
大学毕业生的确比高中毕业生挣得更多，
but does it pay for the exorbitant tuition and the lost wages while at college?
但这真的能支付高昂的学费、抵消大学时期本可用来工作的收入吗？
Now even economists admit going to college pays off for only those who complete it.
现在经济学家甚至都承认，只有对能完成学业的来说，大学才是值得的。
But that's only because high school wages have been cut to the bone, for decades now.
但这仅仅是因为几十年来，高中毕业生的工资少的可怜。
For decades, workers with a high school degree have been denied a fair share of what they have produced.
几十年来，拥有高中学历的人们无法按劳取酬。
And had they received as they should have, then going to college would have been a bad investment for many.
如果他们得到了自己应有的报酬，那么对许多人来说，上大学不是个划算的事儿。
College premium? I think it's a high school discount.
大学溢价？我想其实是高中折价。
Two out of three people who enroll are not going to find an adequate job.
三分之二的大学生并不能找到适合的工作。
And the future, for them, doesn't look particularly promising -- in fact, it's downright bleak.
他们的前景也并不光明，甚至是彻底的灰暗。
And it is they who are going to suffer the most punishing forms of student debt.
而正是这些大学生们，他们将承担助学贷款的重担。
And it is they, curiously and sadly, who are marketed most loudly about this college premium thing.
正是这些大学生们，好奇又有些可悲地大肆宣扬大学溢价。
That's not just cynical marketing, that's cruel.
这样的市场营销不仅是讽刺的，更是残酷的。
So what do we do? What if students and parents treated higher education as a consumer product?
那么我们应该怎么做呢？如果学生和家长把高等教育看成消费品怎么样？
Everybody else seems to. Then, like any other consumer product, you would demand to know what you're paying for.
其他人都是这样看待的。然后，就像其他的消费产品一样，你会想要知道你到底购买了什么产品。
When you buy medicines, you get a list of side effects.
当你购买药物的时候，商家会标出一系列的副作用。
When you buy a higher educational product, you should have a warning label that allows consumers to choose, make informed choices.
当你购买高等教育这个产品时，学校也应该设置提示标语，以供消费者选择，从而理性购物。
When you buy a car, it tells you how many miles per gallon to expect.
当你买汽车时，汽车经销商会告诉你每加仑油可以行进的英里数。
Who knows what to expect from a degree say, in Canadian Studies. There is such a thing, by the way.
比如，就学位来说，谁都不知道“加拿大研究”能带来什么呢。这仅只是一个例子而已。
What if there was an app for that? One that linked up the cost of a major to the expected income.
如果有一个专门的应用呢？一个将专业的花费和估计的收入联系起来的应用。
Let's call it Income-Based Tuition or IBT. One of you make this. Discover your reality.
让我们给其取名为收入基准学费或IBT。在座的就做过类似app。评估你的现实条件。
There are three advantages, three benefits to Income-Based Tuition.
根据收入决定学费有三个好处。
Any user can figure out how much money he or she will make from a given college and major.
任何人都可以判断出大学学位或专业能够带来多少收入。
Such informed users are unlikely to fall victim to the huckster's ploy, to the sales pitch. But also to choose wisely.
这样，人们充分了解后，就不会陷于过度的宣传和推销中，做出更加明智的选择。
Why would anybody pay more for college than let's say, 15 percent of the additional income they earn?
如果大学的学费比将来收入要高出15%，那何苦还要上大学呢？
There's a second benefit to Income-Based Tuition.
收入决定学费的第二个好处是，
By tying the cost to the income, college administrators would be forced to manage costs better, to find innovative ways to do so.
将花费与收入相连，也能迫使大学管理者们更好地想出更多新办法来控制费用。
For instance, all of you students here pay roughly the same tuition for every major.
例如，不同专业的学生学费大概相同。
That is manifestly unfair, and should change.
这很明显是不公平的，需要进行调整。
An engineering student uses more resources and facilities and labs and faculty than a philosophy student.
学工程的比学哲学的运用更多资源和设施、需要更多实验室和教职工。
But the philosophy student, as a consequence, is subsidizing the engineering student.
结果就是哲学专业的学生在补贴着工程专业的学生。
Who then, by the way, goes on and earns more money.
但是，谁又挣得更多呢？
Why should two people buy the same product, pay the same, but one person receive half or a third of the service.
为什么两个人付相同的费用、买相同的产品，却有一个人只能获得一半或三分之一的服务呢？
In fact, college grads, some majors, pay 25 percent of their income servicing their student debt, while others pay five percent.
实际上，一些专业的毕业生要拿出25%的工资付学生贷款，而其他专业的学生只需拿出5%。
That kind if inequity would end when majors are priced more correctly.
只有将不同专业更适当地定价，才能结束这种不平等现象。
Now of course, all this data -- and one of you is going to do this, right?
当然，定价的数据，在座的会有人做这个，对吧？
All this data has to be well designed, maybe audited by public accounting firms to avoid statistical lies.
定价需要合理设计，也许需要公共会计师事务所来审计，避免统计失误。
We know about statistics, right?
我们都对统计略知一二。
But be that as it may, the third and biggest benefit of Income-Based Tuition,
尽管如此，收入基准学费的第三个，也是最大的好处是，
is it would free Americans from the fear and the fact of financial ruin because they bought a defective product.
即便人们买了有缺陷的产品，也不会产生消费恐惧或者巨大的经济负担。
Perhaps, in time, young and old Americans may rediscover, as the gentleman said earlier, their curiosity, their love of learning
也许，最后美国人会重新发掘，就如人们之前所说，自己的好奇心和对知识的渴望，
begin to study what they love, love what they study,
会开始学习自己热爱的，热爱自己学到的，
follow their passion...getting stimulated by their intelligence, follow paths of inquiry that they really want to.
追随自己的热情，用他们的才智，去探索他们真正想了解的。
After all, it was Eric and Kevin, two years ago, just exactly these kinds of young men,
毕竟，两年前正是Eric和Kevin这样的年轻人，
who prompted me and worked with me, and still do, in the study of indebted students in America. Thank you for your attention.
给我鼓励、与我并肩作战，直至今日，研究美国负债学生的情况。感谢您的倾听。