Inequality is one of the big problems of the United States.

不平等是美国面临的最大问题之一

But it's also a big problem of the world.

它也是世界各地存在的大问题

To start with a problem for the United States, inequality with the United States,

先说美国存在的一个问题 美国的不平等

everybody knows by now the numbers the 1% or 0.1% of the people have 80% of the money in the United States.

大家都知道 目前1%或0.1% 的美国人占据着80%的财富

One might say if you're rich, you might say well, "Isn't that sad?

有人可能会说 如果你是富人 你会说“是不是很悲哀？

But those poor people, they're poor because they're lazy

但那些穷人 之所以穷是因为他们懒

and they're not trying hard and the American dream is rags to riches.

因为他们不够努力 美国梦就是从贫穷到富有

They're poor because it's all their fault."

他们穷都是自己的错”

Well, the big reason that they are poor is because they are getting crummy educations,

但他们穷的主要原因是他们受到的教育微不足道

because American support for education has declined,

因为美国对教育的支持有所下降

because where you live is tied to the quality of the school where you're at.

因为你居住的地方决定了你受教育的水平

And if you get a crummy education, you're going to end up with a crummy job and you're going to end up poor.

如果你没有受到良好教育 将来就找不到好工作 最后就会穷困潦倒

In the United States the correlation between the income of parents and the income of their children when they grow up

在美国 父母的收入与孩子长大后的收入之间的关联性

is higher than in any other country in the world, meaning that if you want to be rich,

要高于任何其他国家 也就是说如果你想成为富人

if you are a child and you want to be rich, the best thing to do is to be born to rich parents.

如果你是个孩子 而且以后想当富人 那你的最佳选择就是出生在富人家庭

There's is a cruel joke which says if you are a baby, choose your parents carefully,

有个很残酷的玩笑 说的是如果你是个婴儿 那一定要慎重选择父母

because that's the best predictor of whetheryou end up rich or not.

因为这能最好地预测未来的你是否富有

You can say so what difference does it make for the rich people if there are all these unhappy unproductive poor people?

你可以说 如果到处都是不开心且生产力低下的穷人 这能对富人有何影响呢？

Well, in my lifetime in Los Angeles, twice I've experienced riots in my city of Los Angeles,

根据我在洛杉矶的生活经历 我曾在这座城市经历过两次暴乱

where the riots broke out in the center of the city where there were lots of poor people,

就在市中心发生暴乱 那里聚集着很多穷人

miserable, recognizing that they didn't have any long term prospects.

他们痛苦不堪 看不见未来

And they started rioting and they burning, they started burning.

他们开始暴乱 纵火 开始到处放火

It was concerned in rich sections like Beverly Hills

人们担心像比佛利山庄这样的富人区

that the rioters would spread out of the center of Los Angeles and start wrecking Beverly Hills.

暴乱者会从洛杉矶市中心分散开来 去破坏比佛利山庄

So what did the police do in Beverly Hills?

那比佛利山庄的警察们有何举动呢？

The only thing they could do was to string up strips of this yellow plastic police tape

他们唯一能做的就是用黄色的塑料警察胶带

across the main boulevards with signs that said rioters keep out.

围上主干道 上面带有暴乱者请勿靠近的标志

Well, at the time of the last riots, the rioters, it happened, did not invade Beverly Hills.

在最近一次暴乱中 暴乱者确实没有闯进比佛利山庄

But you can bet there will be more if there's inequality continuing in the United States, there'll be more riots.

但如果美国的不平等现象继续存在 就一定会发生更多暴动

And the next time the rioters are going to invade Beverly Hills

下一次 暴乱者就会闯进比佛利山庄

and they will be burning and doing other bad things there.

他们会放火 会无恶不作

And yellow strips of plastic police tape will not keep them out.

黄色的塑料警察带将不再有任何作用

So what does inequality mean for the United States?

所以不平等对美国意味着什么呢？

It's really bad for those Americans at the lower end of the spectrum,

它对那些生活在底层的穷人来说很糟糕

but it's going to be bad, and maybe fatally bad, for rich Americans.

但对美国的富人来说也很糟糕 甚至可能是致命的