年9月高口阅读上半场第一篇
Congress began 2010 with a bad case of legislative déjà vu. Last year, it approved a $787 billion stimulus package meant to "create or save" millions of Jobs. President Obama says the stimulus has saved or created as many as 2 million jobs so far. But even if that highly optimistic figure is true, in the real world, over 3 million jobs have been lost since the stimulus was signed into law – a dismal feat all financed with enormous debt. Now Congress is working on another stimulus package, but they're calling it a jobs bill. In December, the House passed a $174 billion "Jobs for Main Street Bill" that would use federal dollars to fund job-creating infrastructure projects, while extending unemployment benefits. Sound familiar?
Unemployment remains at about 10 percent and state unemployment insurance funds are running out of money. While the Obama administration works to artificially inflate the number of jobs, the unemployed face diminished opportunities and income security. By 2012, 40 state unemployment trust funds are projected to be empty, requiring $90 billion in federal loans to continue operating. Normally, state unemployment benefits pay jobless workers between 50 and 70 percent of their salaries for up to 26 weeks. But during this recession, Congress has extended those benefits four times. The result is that some workers can now claim benefits for 99 weeks. Now Congress may enact a record fifth extension. What would be wrong with that? Everything. The state-federal unemployment insurance program (UI) is an economic drag on businesses and states. And it's a poor safety net for the unemployed.
UI, a relic of the Great Depression, fails workers when they need it most. UI trust funds depend on a state-levied payroll tax on employers. During boom years, these funds are generally flush. But during recessions, they can get depleted quickly. The bind is that to replenish their UI fund, states have to raise payroll taxes. That hurts the bottom line for businesses both large and small. Passed on to workers as a lower salary, high payroll taxes discourage businesses from hiring. During steep recessions, states face a fiscal Catch-22: Reduce benefits or raise taxes. To date, 27 states have depleted their UI funds and are using $29 billion in federal loans they'll have to start repaying in 2011. Other states are slashing benefits. While federal guidelines recommend that states keep one year's worth of unemployment reserves, many states entered the recession already insolvent. When federal loans are exhausted, the only option left is higher payroll taxes – a move sure to discourage hiring and depress salaries.
The increasingly small and uncertain payouts of UI are the opposite of income security. The effect of UI's eight-decade experiment has been to condition workers to save less for a "rainy day" and instead rely on a system that provides no guarantee. UI limits personal responsibility to save; gradually, individuals find themselves in financial peril. Real reform requires putting employees in charge with individual private accounts and getting the government out of the business of creating illusionary safety nets.
Unemployment Insurance Savings Accounts (UISA), by contrast, give workers control of their own income, eliminating the negative effects of the UI program on businesses and budgets. Adopted by Chile in 2003, UISAs are also financed via a payroll tax on individual workers and employers. The difference is the money is directly deposited into the individual worker's account. Basically a form of forced savings, UISAs allow individuals to draw on their own accounts during periods of unemployment and roll unused funds into their savings upon retirement. With the burden reduced on employers, wages rise, leading to greater contributions to the individual's fund. The federal government is removed from the picture, and all workers are guaranteed a savings account upon retirement.
UISAs liberate workers from uncertainty and improve incentives. When unemployed workers must rely on their own funds rather than the common fiscal pool, they find jobs faster. Congress's repeated extensions of the current UI program may be well intended, but they may also be counterproductive. Like any deadline extension, additional jobless benefits diminish the job seeker's urgency, all at taxpayers' expense.
Today, expanded UI benefits mean higher state payroll taxes, which make it harder for employers to expand hiring or raise wages. UISAs, on the other hand, make the payroll tax on business part of the employer's investment in an individual worker, rather than a penalty for doing business. In 2010, it's time to say goodbye to the problems created by broken policies. Congress should start this decade with a promise for true economic freedom: Let businesses create jobs and let workers keep what they've earned.
-
高级口译第三版答案(7):参观访问
高级口译第三版答案(7):参观访问高级口译听力教程音频下载(第三版)第一篇学位点degreeprogram国家级重点社科研究基地keysocialscienceresearchcenters博士后科学研究流动站post-doctoralresearchstations国家级重点学科nationalkeydisciplines两院院士academici...
-
年9月高口汉译英原文、答案和解析
高口汉译英答案及解析我们应该牢记国际金融危机的深刻教训,正本清源,对症下药,本着简单易行、便于问责的原则推进国际金融监管改革,建立有利于实体经济发展的国际金融体系。要强调国际监管核心原则和标准的一致性,同时要充分考虑不同国家金融市场的差异性,提高金融监...
-
高级口译英译汉必备15篇(13)
Wemustrecognizethattheworldtodayisdiverse,manifold,colorfulandrichintermsofculture.Thisshouldbeanassetratherthanadebtofhumanity.Itpermeatesallaspectsofhumanrights,whethercivil,political,economic,socialorcultural.Theworldwouldbeamuchbetterpl...
-
年3月17日中高级口译笔试考试考前温馨提醒
2013年3月17日将迎来春季上海中高级口译笔试考试,备考的同学们都准备得怎么样了呢?相信现在大家都已经准备充分蓄势待发了吧。小编将为大家带来一些考前的注意事项和温馨提示,希望能够提醒到大家一些细节的问题。复习知识固然重要,可是小细节也不能忽视哦。下面就...