原創(chuàng)： 我是小F? FT每日英語? 今天

FT專欄作家?guī)彀乇硎?，特朗普承諾要重振“美國夢”，但許多美國人想要的，卻是高稅收、低壓力、相對平等的“北歐夢”?！氨睔W夢”真的會取代“美國夢”嗎？

The northern European dream looks something like this: get home from work in time for dinner with the kids; no stress about paying for their education or healthcare; safe streets in a safe region; an affordable home near your extended family; frequent holidays and a long life. You won’t get rich, but you won’t need to either. This vision of the good life has rarely been articulated (except in Jeremy Rifkin’s 2004 book The European Dream) but it animates the region bounded by Iceland in the west, Germany in the east, and France in the south. Now the northern European dream is displacing the much better-known American dream — even, remarkably, inside the US itself.

“北歐夢”差不多是這樣的：每天能按時下班，回家和孩子們一起吃晚飯；支付子女的教育或醫(yī)療費用毫無壓力；所在地區(qū)很安全，街道上治安良好；住在一所負擔(dān)得起的房子里，親人們也住在附近；經(jīng)常休假；長壽。你不會變得富有，但你也不需要。這幅美好生活構(gòu)想很少有人說起（除了杰里米?里夫金(Jeremy Rifkin)在2004年出版的《歐洲夢》(The European Dream)中談?wù)撨^），但它給西到冰島、東至德國、南到法國的這個地區(qū)帶來勃勃生機。如今，“北歐夢”正在取代家喻戶曉的“美國夢”，甚至在美國國內(nèi)也有此趨勢，這非同尋常。

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The American dream of “chewing gum, liberation and democracy” was imported into war-ruined Europe by occupying GIs, said German historian Paul Nolte at a debate organised by the Swiss newspaper NZZ in Berlin last week. Postwar, the core component of the dream became individual economic ascent, writes Sarah Churchwell in her new book Behold, America: anyone could make it if they wanted it enough (and read enough self-help books). I grew up in 1980s northern Europe imbibing this dream from soap operas such as Dallas and Dynasty, from the lives of celebrities such as Madonna and, above all, from adverts.

瑞士《新蘇黎世報》(NZZ)最近在柏林組織了一個討論會，德國歷史學(xué)家保羅?諾爾特(Paul Nolte)在會上指出，“以嚼口香糖、追求自由和民主為代表”的美國夢是美國占領(lǐng)軍帶到因為戰(zhàn)爭而滿目蒼夷的歐洲的。莎拉?丘奇威爾(Sarah Churchwell)在她的新書《看啊，美國》(Behold, America)中寫道，戰(zhàn)后，美國夢的核心變成了個人在經(jīng)濟上的成功：只要夢想足夠堅定（而且讀過足夠多的勵志書籍），任何人都可以實現(xiàn)美國夢。上世紀80年代在北歐，我就是在美國夢的熏陶下長大的，它們無處不在，從《達拉斯》(Dallas)和《王朝》(Dynasty)這種肥皂劇，到麥當(dāng)娜(Madonna)等名人的生活，而最重要的是廣告。

① imbibe /?m'ba?b/ n. 吸液 v. 吸入；吸取

例句：These plants imbibe moisture through their roots. 這些植物通過根部吸收水分。

But that dream has faded. After Donald Trump descended the golden escalator in Trump Tower in 2015 to launch his presidential run, he intoned the new commonplace: “Sadly, the American dream is dead.” He himself is living proof of that: though he pretends to embody the dream, he is in fact an heir leading a society dominated by heirs, the predictable result of 80 years of national wealth accumulation and low to non-existent inheritance taxes. The US has less social mobility than northern Europe, according to Pew Charitable Trusts, the Brookings Institution and others. Being an average American now is like running a struggling small business: you’re always on the brink.

但美國夢已經(jīng)暗淡無光。自從2015年唐納德?特朗普(Donald Trump)走出特朗普大廈(Trump Tower)的金色電梯宣布參加總統(tǒng)競選以后，他嘴上談的那一套不過是新的老生常談：“可悲的是美國夢已死?！彼约壕褪沁@句斷言的活生生的例子：盡管他假裝是美國夢的象征，但他實際上是一個繼承者，領(lǐng)導(dǎo)著一個由繼承者主宰的社會。長達80年的國民財富積累以及低到接近于零的遺產(chǎn)稅造成這種結(jié)果是可以預(yù)料的。根據(jù)皮尤慈善信托基金會(Pew Charitable Trusts)、布魯金斯學(xué)會(Brookings Institution)以及其他機構(gòu)的數(shù)據(jù)，美國的社會流動性低于北歐?，F(xiàn)在身為一個普通美國人就好像經(jīng)營一家步履維艱的小企業(yè)：隨時就可能撐不住了。

②brink /br??k/ n.（峭壁的）邊緣

例句：Because of this failure the village are at the brink of disappearance. 由于這種轉(zhuǎn)變的失敗，這些村莊正處于消失的邊緣。

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True, the northern European dream has shortcomings. It tends to produce low growth and few innovative companies. For 200 years, Britain and then the US have invented the economic future, while continental Europe merely reacts, said French demographer Emmanuel Todd at the recent debate in Berlin. Europeans rely on American companies such as Facebook, Amazon and Uber to create their modernity, said Nolte.

確實，北歐夢存在缺陷。它往往會造成經(jīng)濟增速低下，創(chuàng)新性公司很少。法國人口學(xué)家埃馬努埃爾?托德(Emmanuel Todd)在柏林討論會上表示，200年來，英國、美國先后勾勒了經(jīng)濟未來圖景，而歐洲大陸只是響應(yīng)。諾爾特表示，歐洲人依賴Facebook、亞馬遜(Amazon)和優(yōu)步(Uber)等美國企業(yè)來締造現(xiàn)代性。

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Yet these companies scarcely spread wealth to average Americans. Amazon, for instance, pays almost no federal tax, and wheedles out tax breaks from regions (including up to $3bn from New York for opening its second headquarters there). Europe looks better placed than the US to meet the next big governmental challenge: regulating and taxing Big Tech. Northern Europe’s high taxes probably discourage striving, but then less striving makes life more relaxing — and many northern Europeans take quiet pleasure in paying tax.

然而這些企業(yè)很少讓普通美國人也財富均沾。例如，亞馬遜幾乎沒繳納什么聯(lián)邦稅，而且還從地方騙取稅收優(yōu)惠（包括因為要設(shè)立第二個總部將從紐約州獲得最高30億美元的稅收優(yōu)惠）。政府面臨的下一個重大挑戰(zhàn)是如何對大型科技公司進行監(jiān)管和課稅，在這方面歐洲的形勢要好于美國。北歐的高稅率或許會阻礙奮斗，但不那么打拼，生活會更輕松，而且很多北歐人在納稅這件事上很是怡然自得。

Their slow-growing region offers the best quality of life in human history, still decades ahead of China, India or Russia. Mockers will say that only the elite benefit but, in fact, northern Europe excels at sharing around its goodies: 22 of the world’s 23 most equal countries (as measured by their Gini coefficients) are European, according to the CIA. Eight of the 11 highest-ranked countries in the UN’s human development index are northern European. And the region does all this on less than half the US’s carbon emissions.

這個增長緩慢的地區(qū)造就了人類歷史上最高質(zhì)量的生活，比中國、印度或俄羅斯領(lǐng)先幾十年。嘲笑者會說，受益的只有精英，但實際上，北歐擅長分享好處：根據(jù)美國中央情報局(CIA)的調(diào)查，在全球23個最平等的國家中（以基尼系數(shù)衡量），有22個位于歐洲。按照聯(lián)合國(UN)的人類發(fā)展指數(shù)，排在最前面的11個國家中有8個在北歐。而且，該地區(qū)在人均碳排放量不到美國一半的情況下實現(xiàn)了這一切。

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Soon, the northern European dream will finally acquire its own propaganda machine. Many northern Europeans now have the linguistic skills to compete in the Anglophone global public sphere; witness Dutch internet newspaper De Correspondent’s plans to launch in the US. Within five years, at the click of an internet translation machine, any northern European website could be turned into decent English. Imagine the seductive power of the northern European dream once it can advertise itself alongside the American one.

很快，北歐夢將終于擁有自己的宣傳機器。很多北歐人現(xiàn)在具備不錯的語言技能，可以在通行英語的全球公共領(lǐng)域和其他地區(qū)的人競爭；看看荷蘭新聞網(wǎng)站De Correspondent要在美國推出的計劃吧。5年內(nèi)，點擊一臺互聯(lián)網(wǎng)翻譯機器，任何北歐網(wǎng)站都有可能轉(zhuǎn)換成地道的英文。一旦北歐夢能夠與美國夢同臺宣傳自己，想象一下北歐夢的誘惑力吧。

詞組拓展

take pleasure in

樂于；喜歡

例句：Mr Sorenson suspects that some consumers take pleasure in exploring the ridiculed. 索倫森教授猜測，有些消費者可能就喜歡對那些評價不好的事物去探個究竟。

例句：I take pleasure in introducing to you the bearer Mr. Li. 很高興能向您介紹這封信的持有者李先生。