How to Get the Poor off Our Conscience

John Kenneth Galbraith

Guide to Reading

John Kenneth Galbraith is the Paul M. Warburg Professor of Economics, Emeritus1, at Harvard University. He is internationally known for his development of Keynesian2 and post-Keynesian economics3as well as for his writing and his active involvement in American politics.

In 1958 Galbraith published The Affluent Society, which challenged the myth of the U.S. economy’s reliance on the gross national product for its social stability, positing4instead that consumer’s taste for luxury goods dictated5the economy’s focus at the expense of the common welfare.

The title of this essay seems to suggest that Professor Galbraith is joining other philosophers and economists in trying to find a theory to get the poor off our conscience. This impression will not change until we come to the end of the essay and unless we have a firm grasp of the ironic tone of the writing.

In the essay, the author brings up five historical solutions for getting the poor off our conscience. He then concentrates on five current designs for getting the poor off our conscience. In presenting the historical solutions, the author is implicit in his criticism. However, he comes out into the open6 when he deals with the current designs. Galbraith does not mince7words in criticizing Reagan’s economic

1

荣誉退职(或退休)的，退休后保留头衔的an emeritus professor (=a professor emeritus)荣誉教授 2

['keinzi?n] 凯恩斯的、凯恩斯主义的：约翰·梅纳德·凯恩斯的经济理论的或与之有关的；尤指提倡政府通过财政项目来提高就业并刺激商业活动的理论；Keynes凯恩斯，约翰·梅纳尔：(1883-1946) 英国经济学家，他认为严重的失业是由于消费需求的不足，可以通过一些政府资助项目来缓解。他也提倡政府通过赤字开支来刺激经济活动 3

The theoretical foundation of Post Keynesian economics is the principle of effective demand, that demand matters in the long as well as the short run, so that a competitive market economy has no natural or automatic tendency towards full employment. 4

1. To affirm or assume the existence of; postulate.假定，断定：证实或假定…的存在；2. To put forward, as for consideration or study; suggest: 提出以供考虑或研究；建议 5

控制，支配；决定；对…有决定性影响：The choice of computer is dictated by our special needs.对计算机的选择取决于我们的特殊需求。 6

坦率,公开谈,公开 Other newspapers that had been aware of the problem then followed suit, forcing the Government to come out into the open. 其他意识到这个问题的报纸也相继做了报道，迫使政府把事情公布于众。 7

客气地说，委婉地说，欲言又止，吞吞吐吐，温和地表示： to mince no words不吞吞吐吐，直言不讳Don't mince matters, please.请直率地说吧。

policy, especially his rocketing8defense budget. Galbraith warns at the end of the essay “Civil discontent and its consequences do not come from contented people.” He points out that to make the poor contented is in the interest of9 the big business.

Today the gaps in wealth between the rich and the poor in the United States have grown wider. According to a Federal Reserve10 report of Jan. 22, 2003, the difference in median11net wealth12 between the 10% of families with the highest incomes and the 20% of families with the lowest incomes jumped1370% from 1998 through 2001. The median income of 2001 for the lowest 20% of families was $39,900 while the median income for the highest 10% of families was $169,600. Yet the Bush Administration is pushing through14 Congress a tax cut plan which will mainly benefit the high income families. Some economists predict that the implementation of the Bush tax cut plan will exacerbate15the polarization16in American society.

With this in mind, we will find Galbraith’s essay still highly relevant and his insight admirable. His warning is still valid for the Bush Administration17.

8

rocket: To soar or rise rapidly迅速上升或猛涨rocketing prices价格飞涨 9

为了，为了…的利益；符合…的利益Whatever we do must be in the interest of the people. 我们所做的一切必须符合人民的利益。 10

（美国）联邦储备系统 11

中央的；中间的；居中的；当中的; 中线的; 中(位)数的, 中值的 12

净财产 13

(价格等)暴涨，突升；猛增Oil prices jumped in the past year.在过去一年中，石油价格猛涨。The steel output is jumping.钢产量正在猛增。 14

使(某人或某事)被通过，使(提案等)获得通过:We shall need all the votes we can get to push the new law through.我们需要我们所能得到的所有选票，才好使新的法律得以通过。 15

[ek's?s?beit; iɡz-] To increase the severity, violence, or bitterness of; aggravate 加重(病情、痛苦、烦恼等)，使(病、痛)恶化(或加剧)，使(痛苦等)更甚(或加深)： to exacerbate ill feeling使恶感加深to exacerbate relations between employers and workers使雇主与工人之间关系恶化 16

A concentration, as of groups, forces, or interests, about two conflicting or contrasting positions.两极分化If the rich keep getting richer and the poor poorer, polarization will emerge. The socialist system must and can avoid polarization. 如果富的愈来愈富，穷的愈来愈穷，两极分化就会产生，而社会主义制度就应该而且能够避免两极分化. 17

The term \of the United States with the name Bush: ? George H. W. Bush#Presidency (1989--1993), the Executive Branch under the 41st president of the United States, 1989--1993

? Presidency of George W. Bush, the Executive Branch under the 43rd president of the United States, 2001--2009

Galbraith’s writing is noted for its lucidity18and persuasiveness. This is clearly evident in the current essay. His skillful employment of irony, from humorous irony to bitter satire, provides excellent examples for careful study.

Text

1. I would like to reflect on19 one of the oldest of human exercises, the process by

which over the years, and indeed over the centuries, we have undertaken to get the poor off our conscience.20 2. Rich and poor have lived together, always uncomfortably and sometimes perilously,

since the beginning of time.21 Plutarch was led to say22: “An imbalance between the rich and poor is the oldest and most fatal ailment of republics.” And the problems that arise from the continuing co-existence of affluence and poverty--and particularly the process by which good fortune is justified in the presence of the ill fortune of others--have been an intellectual preoccupation for centuries.23 They continue to be so in our own time. 3. One begins with the solution proposed in the Bible: the poor suffer in this world

but are wonderfully rewarded in the next. Their poverty is a temporary misfortune; if they are poor and also meek they eventually will inherit the earth. This is, in some ways, an admirable solution. It allows the rich to enjoy their wealth while envying the poor their future fortune. 4. Much, much later, in the twenty or thirty years following the publication in 1776 of

The Wealth of Nations--the late dawn of the Industrial Revolution in Britain--the problem and its solution began to take on24 their modern form25. Jeremy Bentham, a near contemporary of Adam Smith, came up with the

1819

(思想、风格等的)明晰，明白，清楚; 洞察力

1. 反省We should often reflect on our past mistakes.我们应当经常反省自己过去的错误。2. 考虑；仔细想： You have to reflect on how to answer his questions before you get to his house.在你到达他家之前你必须考虑好如何回答他提出的问题。Please reflect upon what I have told you.请你仔细想想我对你讲的话。 20

我想好好反思一下人类最古老的一项活动：在这一业已持续了许多年，实际上是好几百年的活动过程中，人们一直力图抹除自己良心上对穷人的负疚感。（努力使自己的良心不因穷人的存在而过意不去）。 21

自古以来富人与穷人并存于世，他们彼此间总感到不快，有时还感到危险重重。 22

This implies that it was the actual existence of the rich and poor or the logic of his analysis that made him come to such a conclusion. 23

贫富持续共存所引发的问题，尤其是在证明你贫我富是合理的过程中所产生的问题, 千百年来智者们一直在为之苦苦追寻破解之道。 24

具有(某种性质、特征等) 25

过了很久，即在1776年《国富论》发表之后二三十年里--英国工业革命初期的末期，贫富不均的问题及其解决办法开始具有了现代的形式。

formula26that for perhaps fifty years was extraordinarily influential in British and, to some degree, American thought. This was utilitarianism. “By the principle of utility,” Bentham said in 1789, “is meant the principle which approves or disapproves of every action whatsoever according to the tendency which it appears to have to augment or diminish the happiness of the party whose interest is in question.27” Virtue28 is, indeed must be, self-centered. While there were people with great good fortune and many more with great ill fortune, the social problem was solved as long as, again in Bentham’s words, there was “the greatest good for the greatest number.” 29Society did its best for the largest possible number of people; one accepted that the result might be sadly unpleasant for the many whose happiness was not served.30

5. In the 1830s a new formula, influential in no slight degree to this day, became

available for getting the poor off the public conscience. This is associated with the names of David Ricardo, a stockbroker, and Thomas Robert Malthus, a divine. The essentials31are familiar: the poverty of the poor was the fault of the poor. And it was so because it was a product of their excessive fecundity: their grievously uncontrolled lust caused them to breed up to the full limits of the available subsistence.32 6. This was Malthusianism. Poverty being caused in the bed meant that the rich

were not responsible for either its creation or its amelioration. However, Malthus was himself not without a certain feeling of responsibility: he urged33that the marriage ceremony contain a warning against undue and irresponsible sexual intercourse -- a warning, it is fair to say, that has not been accepted as a fully effective method of birth control. In more recent times, Ronald Reagan has said that the best form of population control emerges from the market.

26

A method of doing or treating something that relies on an established, uncontroversial model or approach准则，方案：依据惯用的、无争议的模式或方法而采取的对某些事情的做法或处理方式a new situation comedy that simply uses an old formula.只沿用旧方案的新系列幽默剧 27

根据功利原则，是否赞成任何行动取决于它可能增加还是减少与之相关的人的幸福。 28

the quality of doing what is right and avoiding what is wrong 29

尽管有些人极为富有而更多的人极度贫困，然而，再次用边沁的话来说，只要使“最大多数的人利益最大化”，就能解决这个社会问题。 30

社会竭力为尽可能多的人服务；然而人们必须接受这样一个可能的结果：许多人因得不到幸福而伤心不快。 31

要素，要点 32

令人痛心疾首的是，他们毫无节制的性欲使他们过度生育，达到了其可资利用的生活物质的极限。 33

To advocate earnestly the doing, consideration, or approval of; press for:极力主张，强烈要求