[資訊] 美國夢正在殺死美國人

[kwei (光影)]

The American Dream Is Killing Us
美國夢正在殺死美國人
原文： https://markmanson.net/american-dream
譯文：察網 http://www.cwzg.cn/theory/202003/56088.html
Mark Manson

【法意導言】“美國夢”是支撐美國人民奮鬥生活的精神支柱。自獨立以來，世世代代的
美國人民都堅信，只要經過努力不懈的艱苦奮鬥，就一定會獲得更好的生活，走向成功的
巔峰。歷史似乎印證了這一觀念。然而時移世易，“美國夢”的合理性被一次次的質疑。
自由撰稿人馬克‧曼森於2016年10月27日在個人網站上發表文章，用檸檬水生意做類比，
闡述了“美國夢”成功的原因。在此基礎上，他分析了美國例外主義的內涵，其在歷史上
的短暫存留造就了“美國夢”，而美國夢的停滯則暴露了美國例外主義論斷的虛弱。更為
致命的是，“美國夢”給美國人民的價值取向帶來的是危險的甚至是破壞性的影響。美國
夢正在殺死美國人民。

Imagine this: you’re a kid again, and you want to sell lemonade in your
neighborhood. So you set up your little lemonade stand with your cardboard
sign written in crayon and get to work.

設想你是一個孩子，你想在你家附近賣檸檬水，於是你搞了一個小攤位，用蠟筆和紙板做
了一個標牌，然後開始營業了。

The first day, one person comes and buys some lemonade. Then the second day,
two people come. Then the third, three. And the fourth, four. Within a month,
you’re serving dozens of people lemonade every day and the demand just keeps
growing.

第一天，來了一個客人。第二天，有兩個。第三天，三個。第四天，四個。不到一個月，
你每天都能有幾十個客人，而且客戶量一直在增長。

But it gets better. Not only does the whole neighborhood want a taste of your
sweet, citrus squeeze, but the price of lemons just seems to keep getting
cheaper. At first, you can get five lemons for a dollar. Then the next week
you can get eight for a dollar. Then the next you can get twelve. And on and
on. Within a few months, you’re a lemonade money-making machine.

更好的是，不僅整個小區都想要品嚐你甘甜可口的檸檬水，檸檬的價格也一直在降低。一
開始，你用一美元可以買到5個檸檬，第二周，你用同樣的價錢可以買到8個，再下一週你
能買到12個。價格一直降一直降，幾個月不到，你就賺的盆滿缽滿，成為了一個檸檬水大
亨。

Of course, news gets out about your magical lemonade neighborhood. And pretty
soon other kids are setting up their lemonade stands all around you.

順理成章地，你的傳奇故事在小區傳播開來了。很快，其他孩子也開始在你周圍擺起了賣
檸檬水的攤位。

But it doesn’t matter, the demand just keeps growing. So you welcome these
other kids. You tell them, “This is the neighborhood of opportunity, where
anyone can sell lemonade and make money.” Meanwhile, as if by magic, more
people show up every day for lemonade, and the price of lemons just keep
getting cheaper.

但這沒關係，需求一直在增長。因此，你對其他孩子表示歡迎。你告訴他們， “這是一
個充滿機會的小區，任何人都可以在這裡賣檸檬水賺錢。”與此同時，彷彿魔法一樣，越
來越多人來買檸檬水，而檸檬也越來越便宜。

You and the other kids realize something: it is impossible to not make money
in this neighborhood. The only way not to make money is to be either lazy or
completely incompetent.1 Your lemonade opportunities are only limited by the
time and energy you’re willing to put into it. The sky is the limit, and the
only thing standing between you and your dreams of lemonade riches is
yourself.

你和其他孩子意識到：在這個小區一定能賺到錢，除非你太懶惰或者太無能。你的檸檬水
生意的好壞只取決於你願意投入的時間和精力。成功無止境，你是唯一能決定你的財富夢
想的人。

Unsurprisingly, a culture starts to develop around the neighborhood.
Narratives are formed about certain kids who sell lots of lemonade and other
kids who don’t. This kid is a genius and sells lemonade 20 hours a day. This
kid is a loser who couldn’t sell ice water in a desert, not to mention he
probably drinks half of his own stash.

不出所料，在小區周圍開始形成一種文化，把孩子們分成可以賣出很多檸檬水的和不能賣
出檸檬水的。這個孩子是個天才，而且每天花20個小時賣檸檬水；那個孩子是個廢物，他
在沙漠中都賣不掉一瓶冰水，更別說他可能自己先把用來賣的檸檬水喝掉一半。

Kids come to see life in a pretty simple way: people get what they deserve.
Or put similarly: people deserve whatever they get. And if they want
something better, they should have been smarter and/or worked harder for it.

孩子們以一種非常簡單的方式來看待生活：種瓜得瓜、種豆得豆，或者說，不管你得到的
是什麼，都是你應得的。如果你想要更好的東西，你就得更聰明，或更努力，或者兼而有
之。

Time goes by. And news of this magical lemonade neighborhood — now serving
lemonade to thousands of customers daily — starts to spread widely. Kids
start bussing in from faraway neighborhoods to try their hand at making it in
the lemonade world. They take the worst jobs squeezing lemons and throwing
out garbage because they know that with the boundless opportunity in the
lemonade neighborhood, it’s merely a matter of time before they move up and
start making good money themselves.

時光流逝。你的小區現在為成千上萬的客戶提供檸檬水，這個神奇的檸檬水小區開始聲名
遠播。其他小區的孩子不遠萬里來到檸檬水小區，想要分一杯羹。他們從事榨檸檬和扔垃
圾這類最底端的工作，因為他們知道，檸檬水小區有無限的機遇，他們總有一天會能夠往
上爬然後賺大錢，那只是時間問題。

This goes on for months, and the kids in the neighborhood begin to realize
something else: that their neighborhood is special. It seems to be chosen by
God. After all, if kids are bussing in from all over town just to sell drops
of lemonade here, there must be something truly special about the
opportunities present. The kids here have far more money. And they work twice
as hard as kids anywhere else. This really must be an exceptional place.

這樣的情況持續了幾個月，小區的孩子們開始意識到一些其他的情況：這個小區很特別。
它似乎受到了上帝的眷顧。畢竟，如果所有鎮上的孩子來這個小區只是為了賣一些檸檬水
，這個地方肯定有什麼特別的機遇。這裡的孩子有更多的錢，他們付出的努力是別的地方
孩子的兩倍。這裡一定是天選之地。

But then one day, things begin to change. First, you hear that the Japanese
kids across town have figured out how to produce twice the lemonade for half
the price, making it impossible for you to compete. Then, there are rumors
that the massive influx of poor Chinese kids are undercutting your prices and
stealing away your customers.

但是有一天，事情開始發生變化。一開始，你聽說鎮上的日本小孩想出了只用一半的價錢
生產兩倍量的檸檬水的方法，讓你根本無法與他們競爭。接著，你又聽說貧窮的中國孩子
的大量進入市場，壓低市價來搶走你的顧客。

But secondly, some of the more successful lemonade vendors have gone around
and bought up the less successful lemonade stands. So instead of hundreds of
independent lemonade vendor kids, you have about a dozen uber-rich kids
controlling the majority of the lemonade market. And to cut costs and bring
in good returns for their investors, they start paying workers less for the
same work. But instead of telling the kids this, they tell them to simply
work harder. After all, people deserve whatever they earn, right?

此外，有一些比較成功的檸檬水商收購了那些不太成功的檸檬水攤。因此，幾百個獨立的
檸檬水攤販沒有了，取而代之的是十幾個超級富豪，這十幾個孩子幾乎壟斷了市場。同時
，為了降低成本並為他們的投資者帶來豐厚的回報，他們開始減少工人的工資，儘管工人
們幹的活還是一樣的。但他們沒有告訴工人們這個事實，相反，他們讓工人們只要更努力
的工作就行了。畢竟，不管是什麼，那都是你應得的，不是麼？

It happens slowly at first. But then the reality becomes unavoidable: kids in
the neighborhood are now making less money even though they are working
harder and longer than ever before.

一開始變化是緩慢的。但漸漸的，小區的孩子們賺的錢越來越少，儘管他們工作的強度和
時間都一直在增長，這是必然的。

But beliefs lag behind reality. People who lose massive amounts of weight
still see themselves as overweight and unattractive for years. People who
used to get bullied when they were young grow up to be unassuming adults who
constantly underestimate others’ ability to accept them.

但是認知是滯後於現實的。成功減重的人在好長一段時間裡還是會覺得自己太胖而不受歡
迎。幼時曾經被霸凌的人長大後還是會自卑，認為不會有人能接受自己。

And culture is no different. The economic reality of the lemonade stands has
now shifted, and it’s not a bright outlook. But the children’s beliefs
persist: the underlying culture stays the same.

文化也不例外。檸檬水攤的經濟情況已然改變，前景並不樂觀。但是孩子們的認知並未改
變：因為文化並未改變。

As a result, the blame game begins. After all, it can’t be the beliefs that
are wrong, it must be someone else who is screwing things all up.

就這樣，大家開始互相責備。畢竟，認知是不可能錯的，一定是有什麼人把事情搞砸了。

The educated kids who had taken the time and money to earn degrees in
lemonade squeezing and street vending looked at the kids without credentials
as weak-minded and inferior simpletons who brought their misfortune upon
themselves. The hardworking kids who started with nothing looked at the more
fortunate kids who were handed their first lemonade jobs and blamed them for
being entitled and unprepared for setbacks. Soon, the neighborhood turned in
upon itself and began to devour itself. Battle lines were drawn. Factions
were born. Factions that were political and extreme and fervent and
contradictory. Yet the underlying assumption remained. The world changed, but
the assumption remained.

那些投入時間和金錢來獲得檸檬水生產和銷售方面學位的孩子看不起那些沒有證書的孩子
，認為他們智力低下、能力不足，因此他們的不幸都是自找的。而那些白手起家、辛苦勞
作的孩子則責備那些一開始就幸運地從事檸檬水事業的孩子，認為他們被上天偏愛而不能
承受風雨。很快，小區內部開始分化鬥爭，形成了不同的戰線和派別。這些派別是政治的
、極端的、狂熱的，也是互相矛盾的。但是基本的假設還是沒有改變。世界變了，但假設
仍然沒變。


AMERICAN EXCEPTIONALISM
美國例外主義

Since the beginning, Americans2 have always seen themselves as exceptional.3
And in many ways, the US has been an historic exception.

從一開始，美國人就一直認為自己是例外的。確實，從很多角度來說，美國一直是一個歷
史性的例外。

In no other time in world history has a group of relatively well-educated and
industrious people been essentially handed a sparsely-populated continent
replete with natural resources, wreathed by two vast oceans on each side
protecting it from any potential invaders.4

一群受過良好教育的、勤勞的人們來到一個人口稀少的大陸，這裡有豐富的自然資源，兩
邊廣闊的海洋環繞著這片大陸，保護其免受任何潛在入侵者的侵略。這在世界歷史上是絕
無僅有的。

Yes, for the first 300 years of its history, the US was the lemonade stand
where more and more customers magically showed up. Whereas civilizations in
Europe and Asia grew, peaked, and died many times over, the people of the US
never had to deal with such limiting factors. Economic opportunity and
progress appeared to be god given — such a constant that generations of
people came and went without knowing life without it.

確實，在其歷史的前300年中，美國就是那個檸檬水攤位，越來越多的顧客魔術般地出現
在這裡。在歐洲和亞洲，文明不斷增長繁榮，達到頂峰，直至消亡，循環往復，而美國人
民卻從未碰到這些限制因素。上天似乎將經濟機遇和進步永遠賜予他們，世世代代美國人
一直這樣生活著。

The United States’ meteoric rise to world superpower happened because of the
confluence of four unique factors that it benefitted from greatly:

美國之所以能迅速崛起，成為世界超級大國，是因為四個獨特因素的共同作用：

Unlimited Land – From the very beginning, the US enjoyed a constant state of
expansion. It took over 100 years from the country’s inception for it to
stretch itself from ‘sea to shining sea.’ In the 20th century, the US added
territories in the Caribbean and Pacific, most notably Hawaii and Alaska.
Cheap and fertile farmland was always plentiful. And natural resources
appeared to be endless, with massive reserves of oil, coal, timber, and
precious metals that are still being discovered today.

1.無限的土地——從一開始，美國就一直處於不斷擴張的狀態。自建國起，美國花了100
多年的時間將其版圖從“大西洋延伸到太平洋”。在20世紀，美國又增加了加勒比海和太
平洋地區的領土，主要是夏威夷和阿拉斯加。因此，美國總是有廉價肥沃的農田和似乎取
之不盡自然資源，時至今日，大量的石油，煤炭，木材和貴金屬資源仍在被發掘。

Unlimited Cheap Labor – The vast majority of the United States has remained
sparsely populated throughout its history. In fact, it was a real concern of
the founding fathers and they believed they needed to attract a steady flow
of immigrants from all over the world to develop a robust and self-sustaining
economy. To do so, they created a democratic system that promoted
entrepreneurialism and attracted talent. This generated an endless influx of
cheap, industrious labor that still continues to this day.

2.無限的廉價勞動力——縱觀其歷史，美國的絕大多數地區人口仍然很少。事實上這也是
美國的開國元勛們真正關心的問題。因此，他們認為美國需要吸引來自世界各地的穩定移
民，以發展強健而可持續的經濟。為此，他們創建了民主制度，倡導企業家精神並吸引人
才。就這樣，美國擁有了無限的廉價且勤奮的勞動力，直到今天仍然是這樣。

And that’s not even mentioning that little thing we had for a while called ‘
slavery.’

我們還沒有提美國歷史上曾經存在了一段時間的‘奴隸制度’。

Unlimited Innovation – Perhaps the one thing the US system got right more
than anything else is that it is set up to reward ingenuity and innovation.
If you come up with the latest, greatest idea, it’s here, more than anywhere
else, that you’ll get rewarded for it. As such, many of the great
technological advances in the last few centuries came from brilliant
immigrants that the US attracted to its soil.

3.無限的創新——美國的制度獎勵匠人精神和創新精神，這或許是它做得最對的一件事情
。如果你的創意是最新最好的，那在世界範圍內美國是最能夠給你回報的地方。因此，在
過去幾個世紀裡，許多偉大的技術進步都來自於被吸引到美國的傑出移民。

Geographic Isolation – Civilizations in Europe and Asia were invaded,
conquered, invaded again, conquered again, back and forth with the tides of
history wiping cultures and peoples from the map over and over again. Each
time, the destruction set society back, forcing them to reconsider themselves
as they rebuilt.

4.地理的隔離——在歐洲和亞洲，許多文明在歷史的潮流中被一次又一次地侵略和征服，
文化和種族在這種往復的衝擊中消失滅絕。而每次破壞產生的社會倒退讓人們在重建文明
的時候不得不重新反思自身。

But not the United States. It was just too bloody far away. I mean, if you’
re Napoleon, why load up a bunch of expensive ships and sail for weeks, when
you can just invade Italy, like, tomorrow?

但美國不是這樣。它太遠了。我的意思是，如果你是拿破崙，你明天就可以打進意大利，
何苦大費周章去侵略美國呢？

As a result, the US developed a sense of being isolated from the world. With
the exception of Pearl Harbor (which took a lot of fucking effort from
Imperial Japan), we’ve just been impossible to get to.

因此，美國似乎是與世隔絕。除了珍珠港（也讓日本帝國花了很大代價才到達）之外，美
國是一直無法到達的地方。

Americans take this for granted. But its effect cannot be overstated. As
recently as a couple decades ago, much of Europe feared an imminent invasion
from the east. Hell, some European countries still fear that invasion.6

美國人將這種地理上的隔絕認為是理所當然的。但是它的作用不能被誇大。就在大約幾十
年前，許多歐洲國家還擔心從東方來的侵略。現在，一些歐洲國家仍然擔心被侵入。

It’s from this intersection of good fortune, plentiful resources, massive
amounts of land, and creative ingenuity drawn from around the world that the
idea of the American Dream was born.

美國夢這一想法的誕生，正是運氣、豐富的資源、大量的土地，以及來自世界各地的人才
多種因素的結合。

The American Dream is simple: it’s the unwavering belief that anybody —
 you, me, your friends, your neighbors, grandma Verna — can become
exceedingly successful, and all it takes is the right amount of work,
ingenuity, and determination. Nothing else matters. No external force. No
bout of bad luck. All one needs is a steady dosage of grit and ass-grinding
hard work. And you too can own a McMansion with a three-car garage… you lazy
sack of shit.

美國夢很簡單：就是堅信任何人——你、我、你的朋友、鄰居、甚至奶奶輩的老人家——
只要他努力堅持，有匠心和決心，都可以非常成功。其他因素都無所謂。沒有外部因素干
擾，也不存在運氣這回事。只要一直保持決心並辛勞工作，你也會擁有一套有三車位車庫
的大別墅。除非你懶得令人髮指。

And in a country with constantly increasing lemonade customers, endlessly
expanding land ownership, endlessly expanding labor pool, endlessly expanding
innovation, this was true.

Until recently…

而在美國這個客戶、土地、勞動力、和創新技術都不斷增長的國家裡，這是真的。直到最
近…


THE STAGNATING AMERICAN DREAM
停滯的美國夢

In the future, people will probably point to the 9/11 terrorist attacks as
the inflection point where the US began its slow descent away from global
dominance. But the truth is that the deteriorating forces have been at work
within the country for decades.

未來的人們可能會將9/11恐怖襲擊作為美國開始失去全球主導地位的節點。但事實是，破
壞的力量已在美國內部存在數十年了。

By almost every major statistical measurement, the average American is worse
off than they were a generation ago. Some pundits have taken to blaming the
younger generations, saying that they’re entitled, self-centered, too
absorbed in their smartphones to work,8 and while some of those complaints
may have a grain of truth to them, the data suggests that the kids are not
the problem.

幾乎每項主要的統計數據都顯示美國人的平均狀況比上一代差。一些專家指責年輕一代，
說他們生來優越、以自我為中心、過於沉迷於智能手機而不能好好工作。儘管其中一些批
評可能是對的，但數據表明年輕一代並不是問題所在。

Generally speaking, Americans today, especially young Americans, are the most
educated and productive generation in US history. But they are also
incredibly underemployed or unemployed

一般而言，當今的美國人，尤其是年輕的美國人，是美國歷史上受教育程度和生產能力最
高的一代。但難以置信的是，年輕一代不能充分就業甚至是不能就業的情況也很嚴重。

This is for the simple reason that there are no jobs, especially middle-class
jobs. Despite Obama’s impressive proclamation that he’s halved the
unemployment rate since he took office, most of the drop in unemployment
since the 2008 crisis has come from part-time or low-skilled jobs, and from
people leaving the workforce altogether.

原因很簡單，沒有工作，特別是給中產階級的工作。奧巴馬說自其就職總統以來，失業率
降低了一半，儘管這令人印象深刻，但事實上，自2008年危機以來，失業率的下降大部分
原因在於人們只能找到一些兼職或低技能工作，還有一部分人失去了就業意願不再是勞動
力的一部分。

Today, approximately 25% of people with college degrees don’t have a job and
aren’t even looking.

現在，大概25%的高校畢業生沒有工作也根本沒有在找工作。

But why? What happened? Where did we go wrong or did we even go wrong? Who
can we blame in angry Twitter rants or at cocktail parties?

但是為什麼呢？發生了什麼？我們哪裡出錯了麼？甚至，我們是否錯了？當我們在推特上
憤而發帖時，在我們在雞尾酒會上談論國是時，我們到底應該歸咎於誰？

Well, there’s actually no one to blame. It’s just that the strategies and
beliefs that the country were founded upon have finally bumped up against
their limitations:

事實上，沒有誰可以責怪。是我們這個國家所基於的策略和信念終於到達了其侷限之處：

No More Land. Fact is, we ran out of land around 1900. So we conquered Cuba
and the Philippines and like, Guam, and stuff. But after the World Wars
happened we realized something the English never did: that is, why spend all
of your time and money actually invading a poor country when you can just
lend them money and tell them to sell you stuff for really cheap?

1.再也沒有更多的土地了。事實上，我們的土地在1900年左右就用盡了。所以我們征服了
古巴和菲律賓，以及其他地方，比如關島。但兩次世界大戰後，我們意識到一件英國人從
來沒有做過的事情：就是，當你可以借錢給一個貧窮的國家，然後讓他們以非常便宜的價
格賣給你東西時，為什麼要花時間和金錢去侵略他們呢？

That’s essentially what we did throughout the Cold War. We called it a
global hegemony, and it was basically like this low-level form of extortion
of the third world: either open up trade for us, let our corporations come in
and use your land and cheap labor, or get shut out and continue to wallow in
poverty.

這正是我們在整個冷戰時期所做的。我們稱其為全球霸權，基本上，這就像是對第三世界
的低級勒索：對我們開放貿易，讓我們的公司進入你們國家去使用你們的土地和廉價勞動
力，否則你就會被排擠在外一直貧困下去。

And it worked. Dozens of markets around the globe opened up to us, and in
return, we promised that our military would protect them from communism.

這是有效的。全球數十個國家的市場向我們敞開了大門，作為回報，我們承諾，我們的軍
隊將保護他們免受共產主義的侵害。

But that too has dried up. Most of the poor economies have developed enough
that they aren’t so cheap and easy to exploit anymore. Or at least not as
much as they used to be. In fact, some of them may soon become our
competitors.

但即使這樣，我們的資源也竭盡了。隨著大多數貧窮的國家經濟發展了，它們資源的價格
也隨之上漲，我們再也不能輕易地使用它們的資源了，至少不像之前那樣容易獲得廉價的
資源。實際上，其中一些國家可能很快就會成為我們的競爭對手。

No More Cheap Labor. Yeah, that all got outsourced. I mean, why employ a
bunch of local laborers when you can build a factory in China and get the
stuff made for ¼ of the cost? RIP, Detroit. Oh, and there was this whole
thing called “slavery” you might have heard of. It ended.

2. 再也沒有廉價勞動力了。是的，所有的工作都被外包了。我的意思是，當你可以在在
中國建廠並以1/4的成本生產商品時，為什麼要在當地僱用工人呢？安息吧，底特律。哦
，你或許聽說過所謂的“奴隸制”。它結束了。

Innovation is Now Creating Fewer Jobs, Not More. This may be the biggest and
scariest one of all. With the rise of information technology, automation, and
artificial intelligence, the fact is that we don’t need as many people as we
used to.10 You know when you walk into CVS and that computer screen yells at
you to put your shit in the bag and then you just swipe your card and walk
out? Yeah, the whole world is going to be like that soon. Accountants.
Pharmacists. Even taxi cabs and truck drivers. That’s potentially tens of
millions of people out of work. With no opportunity for those jobs to ever
come back.

3.創新所帶來的工作機會正在減少，而不是增加。這可能是最嚴重和最可怕的事情之一。
隨著信息技術，自動化和人工智能的興起，我們需要的勞動力減少了。你知道麼，當你走
進藥店的時候，電腦會大聲指示你，你把東西放進包裡，然後刷卡付款，就可以離開了。
是的，很快全世界都會變成這樣。會計師，藥劑師，甚至出租車司機和卡車司機，都可能
失業，那可能有數千萬人。這些工作再不會出現。

But this isn’t just going to hit the service sector. This is also largely
responsible for the manufacturing sector getting hosed. Despite what Trump
may yammer on about, US manufacturing output has doubled in the past 30 years
and is still the biggest sector in the US economy.11 The problem is that it’
s done that while only employing about 75% of the workers that it used to.12
That’s not the Chinese stealing those jobs. That’s improved technology. You
know, robots and shit.

受影響的不僅僅是服務行業。很大程度上，這也讓製造業陷入困境。儘管特朗普可能會一
直抱怨，但美國製造業的產出在過去30年中翻了一番，並且仍然是美國最大的產業。問題
在於，在達成這樣成就的同時，我們只用了過去所需人工的75%左右。並不是中國人把我
們的工作偷走了，而是技術的進步導致的。你知道的，機器人等等之類的。

In other words: the lemonade party is over. The customers have stopped
coming. The market is contracting. The easy money for anybody who wanted it
is now gone.

換句話說，檸檬水的狂歡結束了。顧客沒有了，市場正在萎縮。錢再也沒有那麼好賺了。

In fact, it’s now the opposite: now there are millions of hardworking,
intelligent people who are living from paycheck-to-paycheck and are stuck in
jobs with few opportunities for advancement and little hope for the future.
And many of these people are pissed.

實際上，現在的情況已經完全反轉了：現在有數以百萬計聰明努力的人靠薪水勉強維持生
計，他們被工作困住，沒有升職空間，也沒有希望可言。許多人對此十分憤怒。

The sad truth is that fewer people today are getting ahead than before.
And they’re getting ahead not due to their hard work or their education as
much as their connections, their family’s socioeconomic status, and of
course, just the plain luck of not getting horribly sick or getting into a
serious accident.

可悲的是，如今成功的人比以前少。而且，成功者之所以能取得成功，並不是因為他們辛
勤勞作，也不是因為他們受過良好的教育，而是因為他們的人際關係，他們家庭的社會經
濟地位，當然，甚至只是因為沒有因為嚴重的疾病或者事故。

Not only is this not the American Dream, it’s the antithesis of the American
Dream. It’s the old feudal order where you’re born into your privilege (or
lack thereof) and forced to just hope things don’t get any worse.

這已經不是美國夢了，這是美國夢的對立面。這就是古老的封建制度，人們生來就有（或
沒有）特權，他們只能希望不會活得更糟。

In fact, economic mobility is lower in the US than almost every other
developed country, and somewhere on par with Slovenia and Chile — not
exactly the gold standards of economic opportunity in the world (no offense
to my Slovenian and Chilean readers). And other Anglo countries such as
Australia and Canada have far more economic mobility, as well as those icky
socialist countries like Denmark, Sweden, and Finland.

實際上，美國經濟的流動性幾乎是所有發達國家裡最低的，與斯洛文尼亞和智利的水平不
相上下——這並不是世界範圍內衡量經濟機會的黃金標準（我無意冒犯斯洛文尼亞和智利
的讀者們）。而其他盎格魯國家（如澳大利亞和加拿大）以及丹麥，瑞典和芬蘭等邪惡的
社會主義國家的經濟流動性要高得多。

 “So the American Dream is dead. Big whoop? What’s your point, Manson?”

“那麼美國夢已死了。哇！？你是什麼意思呢，曼森？”

Well, I’ll tell you my point. It’s the last part of The Tragedy of the
Lemonade Stands that is so dangerous. See, the kids developed a belief system
around “success = hard work = deserving great things” and “failure =
laziness = deserving shitty things.” And those heuristics work great in a
society where there’s boundless opportunity, infinite resources, and
constantly expanding markets.

好吧，我告訴你我的觀點。這是“檸檬水攤位的悲劇”的最後部分，這非常危險。我們看
到，孩子們圍繞“成功=勤奮=獲得成就”和“失敗=懶惰=一無所獲”的公式建立起一個信
念體系。在機會無限，資源無限且市場不斷擴大的社會中，這些推論是很有效的 。

But when the tides turn, and those opportunities are simply no longer there,
well, these same beliefs become quite dangerous and even destructive.

但是，時移世易，當這些機會不再存在時，這樣的信念就變得非常危險，甚至具有破壞性
。

The American Dream causes people to believe that people always get what they
deserve. The American Dream is essentially just another form of what
psychologists call “The Just World Hypothesis.”

1. 美國夢使人們相信他們得到的都是應當的。本質上，美國夢只是心理學裡“正義世界
假說”的另一種形式。

The Just World Hypothesis says that people get what’s coming to them — bad
stuff happens to bad people and good stuff happens to good people. Bad stuff
rarely (if ever) happens to good people and vice-versa.

正義世界假說認為善有善報，惡有惡報——壞人總是遇到不幸，而好人則被好運眷顧。不
幸（如果有的話）幾乎不會發生在好人身上，反之亦然。

There are a couple problems with the Just World Hypothesis though: a) it’s
wrong, and b) believing it kind of turns you into an unsympathetic asshole.

不過，正義世界假說有幾個問題：a）它是錯的，以及b）如果你信奉它，你就會變成為一
個無情的混蛋。

All of us get fucked at some point in our life in a very major way. Whether it
’s a car accident, cancer, being robbed at gunpoint, or developing a
crippling fear of peanut butter, we all get shit on in our own little special
snowflake way in life.

所有人都可能在生活中的某個重要時刻遭遇不幸。無論是交通事故，癌症，被持槍搶劫，
還是對花生醬心生恐懼，我們都有各自的不幸。

We all understand that on some level. But over 25% of Americans have no
savings. Zero. I know what you’re saying, “They shouldn’t have spent so
much money on flat screen TVs!” And maybe there’s something to that. But
the labor market is at an all-time low. Real wages have been stagnating for
50 years straight.18 The point is: the jobs just suck. The lemonade customers
have stopped coming, and that changes everything. Because it means people can
work just as hard as they did before (or even harder) and end up in a worse
place.

我們都在某種程度上理解這一點。但是超過25%的美國人沒有儲蓄。零儲蓄。我知道你會
說什麼：“他們不應該在平板電視上花那麼多錢！”也許這是對的。但是勞動力市場處於
歷史最低點，實際工資水平停滯了50多年。關鍵是：工作也糟糕。檸檬水顧客的流失改變
了一切。這意味著人們即使像以前一樣努力（甚至更加努力），最終只會陷入更糟糕的境
地。

Here’s a stat that will knock your socks off: 45% of homeless people have a
job. You know that guy that sleeps on the bench in your favorite park and
smells like cat piss and when he asks you for a dollar, you scream, “Get a
fucking job!” at him? Yeah, chances are, he already has one. Asshole.

有個數據會讓你大吃一驚：45%的無家可歸者是有工作的。還記得那個睡在你最喜歡的公
園的長凳上臭不可聞的傢伙向你乞討時，你向他大喊：“去找份工作！”麼？是的，很可
能他已經有一份工作了。

The American Dream causes us to believe that people are only worth what they
achieve. If everybody gets what they deserve, then we should treat people
based on what happens to them. Therefore, success makes you into some kind of
saint, a role model that everyone else should follow. Failure turns you into
a pariah, an example of what everyone else should try not to be.

2.美國夢使人們相信，我們應當按照他人的成就來對待他們。如果每個人得到的就是他們
應得的，那麼我們應該根據他們的成就來對待他們。因此，成功者會被推崇為聖人，是所
有人都應該遵循的榜樣。而失敗者則會被唾棄，用於警示他人不要重蹈覆轍。

This creates an extremely shallow and superficial culture where people like
the Kardashians are celebrated for no other reason than they have fame and
money, and people like war veterans, 9/11 first responders, and life-changing
school teachers are more or less ignored and in some cases, left to die. The
unspoken assumption is that if they were so great, where the hell is their
money to take care of themselves?

這形成了一種極其膚淺的文化，在這種文化中，像卡戴珊姐妹這樣的人只因有錢有名就備
受推崇，而退伍軍人，9/11第一線急救人員和改變人們生活的老師這樣的人則或多或少被
忽略，甚至對他們的死活不聞不問。而造成這種情況的原因，不言而喻，正是這樣的假設
——如果他們真的這麼偉大，他們怎麼會沒有錢照顧好自己？

It feels good to believe we all get what we deserve when the gravy train is
rolling and there are new jobs and industries sprouting up like hairs in a dog
’s ass crack. A rising tide raises all ships, as they say. And if our ship
is rising, it feels pretty good to assume that it’s because we’re a bunch
of big-balled badasses.

當新的工作和行業層出不窮蓬勃發展時，我們樂意去相信我們都得到了我們應得的。正如
俗話說的，只要漲潮，所有的船隻都會水漲船高。並且只要我們的船升高了，我們會很樂
意相信那是因為我們自身的偉大。

But the truth is that people don’t always get what they deserve. Bad things
do happen to good people. We all screw up and make mistakes. Each of us
suffers from some vice or tick or failure. And that same belief that makes us
feel so good when times are great, is the same one that causes us to shame
and demonize ourselves when things aren’t so great.

但事實是，人們並不總是能得到他們應得的東西。好人也會碰上不幸。我們都搞砸過一些
事情，也都犯過錯誤。我們每個人也都有某種惡習，不足，或者失敗之處。我們在情況大
好的時候會自我感覺良好，而正是這種情緒讓我們在事情不那麼好的時貶低甚至妖魔化自
己。

The American Dream indirectly encourages people to feel justified in
exploiting others. A couple years ago, a friend of mine was accused of a
serious crime that he did not commit. He hired a lawyer, went to court, and
was found not guilty.

3.美國夢間接地鼓勵人們剝削他人。幾年前，我的一個朋友被指控犯有嚴重罪行，但他並
沒有犯罪。於是他聘請了律師，上庭後被宣告無罪。

About six months later he received a letter from a legal office threatening
to sue him for the exact same offense he was just found “not guilty” of in
criminal court. After consulting his lawyer, the lawyer said that this was
basically just a scare tactic, probably an automated letter, designed to
scare people into paying a settlement rather than going back to court again.

大約六個月後，他收到了一家律師事務所的律師函，揚言要對他提起訴訟，罪名正是之前
在刑事法庭已經被判“無罪”的那一個。我的朋友諮詢了他的律師，律師告訴他，這只是
一種恐嚇手段，那家律師事務所可能只是發一封自動信件，想要嚇唬他，讓他花錢解決麻
煩以避免再次上庭。

So think about this a second. There is a lawyer out there (or team of
lawyers), who go down to city hall and look through the registry of people
who have been acquitted of major crimes. These lawyers then, without even
knowing anything about the people involved, send a letter to the acquitted
person, threatening to sue them on the victim’s behalf, hoping that maybe,
one out of ten or one out of twenty will be scared enough to pay up some
money so that the lawyer will go away.

那麼想想看，有一個律師（或一群律師）到市政廳查詢那些被訴重大罪名而後被判無罪的
人的檔案。這些律師甚至沒有去瞭解任何當事人的情況，就寫信威脅無罪的當事人，要以
受害者的名義起訴他們，希望也許十個人或者二十個人中能有一個為了息事寧人而花錢打
發律師。

This is pure exploitation. And the sick thing is, it’s perfectly legal. In
fact, the lawyers who do this probably make decent money and have nice cars
and live in nice neighborhoods and seem like nice fucking guys as they fetch
their newspaper and pet your dog and comment on the latest sports scores.

這是純粹的剝削。可惡的是，這是完全合法的。實際上，做這些事的律師可能賺了很多的
錢，擁有漂亮的汽車，居住在漂亮的小區，當他們收取報紙，撫摸你的狗並討論最新的體
育賽事時，看上去也像是好人。

But they’re total scumbags. Scumbags to the point where I’m getting angry
typing this right now.

但他們都是卑鄙的人。卑鄙到讓我現在光打字都覺得十分憤怒。

But in a culture where your worth as a human being is tied with your level of
socioeconomic success, there will arise a kind of “might makes right”
 principle — i.e., if I do something that gets money out of you, well, it’s
your fault for not knowing any better.

但是，在一個將人的價值與其社會經濟層面的成功的水平聯繫在一起的文化中，會出現一
種“強者即正確”的原則——即，如果我做某件事，從你身上賺到了錢，那錯誤在於你，
因為你不知道更好的解決方案。

Now that the Tragedy of the Lemonade Stands has hit, and the opportunities
are drying up, and people are running harder just to stay in place, more and
more people are turning to skimming a little bit off the top from the next
guy over, to make it appear as though they are a success in which they’re
not.19 Whether it’s selling penis pills on the internet or creating bogus
websites that trick you into clicking on ads, or you’re a lawyer who tries
to scare recent defendants into giving you money not to sue them, it all
becomes not only more justifiable, but it becomes more necessary to maintain
the same cultural belief that hard work always wins out.

檸檬水攤位悲劇已經到來，機會越來越少，人們為了保持現狀而更加努力，因此越來越多
的人開始從不如自己的人身上攫取利益，以顯示自己的所謂成功，但其實他們根本不能被
稱為成功。無論是在互聯網上出售性藥，還是創建欺騙性的網站來獲得廣告點擊，或者是
作為律師用起訴嚇唬被告人來牟利，這一切不僅變得合理，更成為了保持“勤奮總會成功
”的這一文化信念的必要條件。

Or as it was once said on The Wire: “You know what the trouble is, Bruce? We
used to make shit in this country—build shit. Now we just put our hand in
the next guy’s pocket.”

或正如美劇《火線》裡的台詞“布魯斯，你知道問題在哪裡嗎？在這個國家裡，我們曾經
是建造者。現在我們把手伸向別人的口袋。”

When you’re a kid, you believe everything is right in the world. You go to
school, you do what your parents say, you believe what people tell you, and
you assume everything is going to work out.

小時候，你會相信世界上一切存在都是正確的。你去學校，聽父母的話，你相信別人，並
且認為一切都會好的。

But when you’re a teenager, you come to realize that a lot of this is
bullshit. By the time you reach adolescence, you are subjected to life’s
first traumas and failures. You recognize that the world isn’t fair. Things
go wrong sometimes. Bad things happen to good people and vice-versa. And in
many ways, you’re not as great as you had always thought or realized.

但當你逐漸長大，你會意識到其中很多都是胡扯。在青春期之前，你一定會遭受一次創傷
和失敗。你會認識到世界並不公平。事情有時候並不會如你所願。好人會遭遇不幸，反之
亦然。在許多方面，你都不像自己之前想像或認為的那麼偉大。

Some teenagers handle this realization well and with maturity. They accept it
and cater themselves to it.

一些青少年成功並成熟地應對這個認知。他們接受了這個事實，並調整自己。

Other teenagers, particularly teenagers who are pampered and learn most of
what they know about the world through TV or internet, don’t handle it so
well. The world doesn’t conform to their small-minded belief system and
instead of blaming the belief system, they blame the world. And that blaming
doesn’t turn out well for anybody.

其他的青少年，尤其是那些被溺愛的，通過電視或互聯網瞭解世界的青少年，則不能很好
地應對這一問題。真實的世界和他們狹隘的觀念系統是不一樣的。然而，他們不歸咎於自
身的觀念，而是指責世界。而這種指責對任何人都是不利的。

The US is a young country. Culturally, we are teenagers — just a couple
generations out of our golden years of innocence. And as a country, we are
coming to realize that our young idealism has its worldly limits. That we are
not exceptions. That things are not just. That we cannot fully control our
destiny.

美國是一個年輕的國家。從文化上講，我們是青少年——在我們純真的黃金歲月中也只是
幾代人的時光。作為一個國家，我們逐漸意識到，我們年輕的理想主義有其世俗的極限。
我們並不例外。世界並不是正義的。我們無法完全控制自己的命運。

The question is how well we will adapt and mature to this new reality. Will
we accept it and modify our ethos to match the 21st century? Or will we
become petulant and angry and scapegoat our cognitive dissonance of our
national consciousness away?

問題是，我們將如何適應這一新的現實情況，並成熟起來。我們會接受這個事實，然後修
改我們的觀念去適應21世紀嗎？還是我們會憤怒，為我們民族意識的認知失調找替罪羊？

Perhaps the best thing about the United States is that we get to decide.

也許美國最好之處在於是我們能自己決定。

--
論述謬誤：1 轉移議題 change of subject、2 偷換概念 concept swap、3 虛假目標
strawman argument、4 人身攻擊 ad hominem、5 感性辯護 appeal to emotion、
6 關聯替代因果 correlation as causation、7 不當類比 false analogy、8 不當引申
slippery slope、9 同義反覆 circular reasoning、10 無知辯護 argument from
ignorance、11 引用權威 appeal to authority、12 黨同伐異 appeal to faction 

--
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→ kwei: The American Dream is to build your own thing, not to
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