? ?
American Dreams
? ?There
is a common response to America among foreign writers: the US is a land of
extremes where the best of things are just as easily found as the worst. This is
a clich6 (陈词滥调).
? ?In the land of black and white, people should
not be too surprised to find some of the biggest gaps between the rich and the
poor in the world. But the American Dream offers a way out to everyone.
{{U}}?(46) ?{{/U}} No class system or government stands in the
way.
? ?Sadly, this old argument is no longer true. Over the past
few decades there has been a fundamental shift in the structure of the American
economy.
? ?The gap between the rich and the poor has widened and
widened. {{U}}?(47) ?{{/U}} Over the past 25 years the median US family
income has gone up 18 per cent. For the top 1 per cent, however, it has gone up
200 per cent. Twenty-five years ago the top fifth of Americans had an average
income 6.7 times that of the bottom fifth. {{U}}?(18) ?{{/U}}
?
?Inequalities have grown worse in different regions. In California, incomes
for lower class families have fallen by 4 per cent since 1969．{{U}} ?(49)
?{{/U}} This has led to an economy hugely in favor of a small group of very
rich Americans. The wealthiest 1 per cent of households now control a third of
the national wealth. There are now 37 million Americans living in poverty. At
12.7 per cent of the population, it is the highest percentage in the developed
world.
? ?Yet the tax burden on America’s rich is falling, not
growing. {{U}}?(50) ?{{/U}} There was an economic theory holding that the
rich spending more would benefit everyone as a whole. But clearly that theory
has not worked in reality.
A．Nobody is poor in the US.
B．The top 0.01 per
cent of households has seen its tax bite fall by a full 25 percentage points
since 1980.
C．For upper class families they have risen 41 per cent.
D．Now
it is 9.8 times.
E. As it does so, the possibility to cross that gap gets
smaller and smaller.
F. All one has to do is to work hard and climb the
ladder towards the top.
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