紐時賞析／美國最大的威脅 就是美國自己

The Biggest Threat to America Is America Itself

美國最大的威脅就是美國自己

“America is back” became President Joe Biden’s refrain on his European trip last month, and in a narrow sense it is.

「美國回來了」成了美國總統拜登上月歐洲行一再重談的老調，而狹義來說，沒錯。

We no longer have a White House aide desperately searching for a fire alarm to interrupt a president as he humiliates our country at an international news conference, as happened in 2018. And a Pew Research Center survey found that 75% of those polled in a dozen countries expressed “confidence in the U.S. president to do the right thing,” compared with 17% a year ago.

白宮幕僚不再像2018年那樣，急著尋找火警警報鈕，以打斷總統在國際記者會上羞辱自己國家的談話，而且皮尤研究中心對12國民調顯示，75%受訪者「相信美國總統會做正確的事」，一年前這樣表示的僅17%。

Yet in a larger sense, America is not back. In terms of our well-being at home and competitiveness abroad, the blunt truth is that America is lagging. In some respects, we are sliding toward mediocrity.

但廣義而言，美國還沒回來。就以國內民眾福祉和國際競爭力來說，赤裸裸的真相是，美國比別人落後。在某些方面，美國滑落到普普通通。

Greeks have higher high school graduation rates. Chileans live longer. Fifteen-year-olds in Russia, Poland, Latvia and many other countries are better at math than their American counterparts — perhaps a metric for where nations will stand in a generation or two.

希臘人的學校畢業率比我們高。智利人活得比我們久。俄國、波蘭、拉脫維亞等許多國家15歲青少年的數學比我們的好，也許這能反映出一兩個世代後的國家競爭力排名。

As for reading, one-fifth of American 15-year-olds can’t read at the level expected of a 10-year-old. How are those millions of Americans going to compete in a globalized economy? As I see it, the greatest threat to America’s future is less a surging China or a rogue Russia than it is our underperformance at home.

就閱讀來說，美國五分之一的15歲青少年達不到十歲水準。這數以百萬計美國人如何在全球化經濟中競爭？在我看來，美國未來最大威脅不是崛起的中國和流氓俄國，而是國內民眾生活不如人。

We Americans repeat the mantra that “we’re No. 1” even though the latest Social Progress Index, a measure of health, safety and well-being around the world, ranked the United States No. 28. Even worse, the United States was one of only three countries, out of 163, that went backward in well-being over the last decade.

美國人老說「我們是全球第一」，但衡量世界各國民眾健康、安全和幸福的最新「社會進步指數」把美國排在28名。更糟的是，163國中只有三國過去十年民眾福祉倒退，美國是其中之一。

Another assessment last month, the IMD World Competitiveness Ranking 2021, put the United States No. 10 out of 64 economies. A similar forward-looking study from the World Bank ranks the United States No. 35 out of 174 countries.

上月另一分評估報告、2021年IMD世界競爭力排名，把美國放在64個經濟體中的第十名。世界銀行發表的類似前瞻研究把美國列在174國中的35名。

So it’s great that we again have a president respected by the world. But we are not “back,” and we must face the reality that our greatest vulnerability is not what other countries do to us but what we have done to ourselves.

好啦，我們又有了世界尊敬的總統，這樣很好。但我們並沒「回來」，而且必須面對現實，就是我們最大弱點並非其他國家對我們做了什麼，而是我們對自己做了什麼。

“America’s chronic failure to turn its economic strength into social progress is a huge drag on American influence,” said Michael Green, chief executive of the group that publishes the Social Progress Index. “Europeans may envy America’s corporate dynamism but can comfort themselves that they are doing a much better job on a host of social outcomes, from education to health to the environment.

發表社會進步指數的美國社會進步促進會會長葛林說：「美國長期未能把經濟實力轉換為社會進步，嚴重拖累美國影響力。歐洲人也許羨慕美國企業充滿活力，但可以自我安慰說，歐洲從教育、健康到環境，在許多社會生活面向上表現比美國好多了。」

文／Nicholas Kristof 譯／李京倫

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【李京倫】

紐時專欄作家紀思道搭上時事話題，從拜登訪歐時宣稱「美國回來了」談起，很快切入重點「美國在民眾福祉方面遠非世界第一」，與外交上回歸領導世界的位子做對比。倒數第二段呼應首段。

Refrain當名詞是副歌，有重複的意思，也指老生常談。well-being是幸福安康，譯為福祉。blunt是（言論）直率的、（真相）赤裸裸的。slide原指滑行，也指衰落，通常是無意間造成。

Mediocrity是名詞，形容詞為mediocre，意為平庸。愛因斯坦曾說：Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds.

Metric是「公制的」，當名詞指「測量指標」。underperform是表現不如預期，表現較優是outperform。

Drag當動詞是拖、拉，當單數使用的be a drag on意指「成為……的累贅」。a host of是許多、大量。