譯/王麗娟 Mike McCabe's neighbors in rural Gillespie, Illinois, consider him lucky. After being out of work for a year, he landed a job in January making cardboard boxes at a nearby Georgia-Pacific plant for $19.60 an hour.
He would agree with them, were it not for the fact that his previous job in a steel mill near St. Louis paid $28 an hour. "I've had to rethink my whole life to make ends meet on what I'm now making," McCabe said. "The middle class is struggling for sure, and almost anybody in my position will tell you that."
麥可．麥克卡貝住在伊利諾州鄉下城鎮吉萊斯比，他的鄰居認為他是幸運的。失業一年後，今年一月他在附近的喬治亞─太平洋工廠找到了一份做紙箱的工作，時薪19.60美元。
要不是他先前在聖路易附近鋼鐵廠工作時薪有28美元，他應該會同意他們的看法。麥克卡比說：「我必須重新考慮我的整個生活，讓現在我賺的錢也能夠用。中產階級的日子苦哈哈，這是確定的，和我處境相同的人幾乎全都會這樣告訴你。」
Middle-class Americans have fared worse in many ways than their counterparts in economically advanced countries in Western Europe in recent decades, according to a study released by the Pew Research Center.
What is more, as McCabe's experience suggests, the authors of the Pew study found a broader contraction of the American middle class, even as the ranks of the poor and the rich have grown.
"Compared with the Western European experience, the adult population in the U.S. is more economically divided," said Rakesh Kochhar, associate director for research at Pew. "It is more hollowed out in the middle. This speaks to the higher level of income inequality in the United States."
皮尤研究中心發表的研究結果顯示，近幾十年美國中產階級的境況，在許多方面都較西歐經濟發達國家的中產階級來得糟。
此外，皮尤研究的作者還發現，正如麥克卡比的經驗所顯示的，在窮人和富人階級成長之際，美國中產階級卻呈現了更大程度的縮減。
皮尤主管研究的副主任拉克許．柯克哈爾說：「與西歐的經驗相較，美國的成人人口在經濟方面更為分化。中產階級出現更大的空洞化。這顯示美國收入不均的情況更為嚴重。」
For example, between 1991 and 2010, the proportion of adults in middle-income households fell to 59 percent from 62 percent, while it rose to 67 percent from 61 percent over the same period in Britain and to 74 percent from 72 percent in France.
Households that earned from two-thirds to double the national median income were defined as middle income in the Pew study; in the United States that translated into annual income of $35,294 to $105,881, after taxes, in 2010.
A shrinking middle class is not necessarily cause for alarm, if the reason for the contraction is that more people are moving up the income ladder, said David Autor, a professor of economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
例如，1991至2010年間，中等收入戶成人的比例從62%下降至59%，而同一時期英國卻從61%上升至67%，法國從72%升至74%。
皮尤的研究將收入為全國中位數收入三分之二到兩倍的家戶定義為中等收入戶。在2010年的美國，這是指稅後年收入在35,294至105,881美元的家戶。
麻省理工學院經濟學教授大衛．奧特說，中產階級萎縮未必值得恐慌，如果萎縮是因為有更多的人順著收入階梯向上爬升所致。
The proportion at the top did rise, but so did the proportion at the bottom, rising to 26 percent from 25 percent. That is much more worrisome, said Autor, who was not involved with the Pew study.
Moreover, the middle-income group was smaller — and the groups at either extreme larger — in the United States than in any of the 11 Western European countries studied.
And incomes in the middle rose faster in Europe than they did in the United States, according to Pew. Median incomes in the middle tier grew by 9 percent in the United States between 1991 and 2010, compared with a 25 percent gain in Denmark and a 35 percent increase in Britain.
頂層收入者比例確實上升了，但底層者的比例也一樣，從25%上升到26%。奧特說，這點遠比中產階級萎縮更令人擔憂。奧特並未參與皮尤的研究。
此外，與列為研究對象的11個西歐國家中任何一國相比，美國的中等收入族群比例都更小，而處於兩端的族群比例卻都更大。
根據皮尤的研究，歐洲中產階級收入的成長較美國為快。1991至2010年間，美國中產階級的中位數收入增長了9%，丹麥則增長了25%，英國更達35%。
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