各位小伙伴，今天我们继续来做外刊精读，给大家选的是一篇《经济学人》文章，主题是“年龄与不平等”，很有意思，一起来读读吧。
All men are created equal
, but they do not stay that way for long. That is one
message
of a report in October by the OECD, a club of 35 mostly rich democracies. Many studies
show
how income gaps have evolved over time or between countries. The OECD’s report looks instead at how inequality
evolves with age
.
人人生而平等
，但这种状态并不会持续很久。这是经合组织
10
月份发布的一份报告得出的
结论
，该组织有
35
个成员国，主要是富裕民主国家。许多研究都
关注
收入差距如何随着时间或如何在不同国家之间变化，而经合组织的报告却着眼于不平等如何
随着年龄发生变化
。
As
(
交代事实背景
）
people
build their careers
, or don’t, their incomes tend to
diverge
. This inequality peaks when a generation reaches its
late 50s
. But it tends to fall thereafter,
as
(
表原因
) people draw redistributive public pensions and quit the
rat race
, a contest that tends to give more unto every one that hath. Old age, the OECD notes, is a “
leveler
(
具体化处理
)”.
有人
事业成功
，有人成就寥寥，人们的收入也开始
呈现两极化
。当一代人
快到
60
岁
时，这种不平等达到顶峰。但那之后，不平等水平往往会回落，因为人们将领取再分配的公共养老金，退出那种往往让富者更富的
激烈竞争
。经合组织指出，老年期
令人们趋向平等
。
Will it remain so? Retirement, after all,
flattens
incomes not by redistributing from rich seniors to poor, but by transferring money to old people from
younger
, working taxpayers. There will be fewer of them around in the future for every retired person, reducing (
ing
结构对主句造成的结果进行补充说明
) the role of redistributive public pensions.
这种情况会持续下去吗？毕竟，退休
使
收入
趋于平等
，靠的不是把富裕老人的财富重新分配给贫困的老人，而是将还在工作的
年轻
纳税人的钱转移给老人。未来，供养每一位退休人员的年轻纳税人数量会减少，这将削弱公共养老金的再分配作用。
One logical response to the diminishing number of workers per pensioner is to raise the
retirement age
(
先处理事实部分，再翻译句子主干
). But that will exacerbate old-age inequality, if mildly.
Longer careers
(
同义替换，注意要“九九归一”
) will give
richer workers
more time to
compound
(
动词处理“隐词法”
) their advantages. And when retirement eventually arrives, the poor,
who die earlier
(
注意措辞，理解后站在写作的高度行文
), will have less time to enjoy their
pensions
.
供养每一位退休人员的劳动者人数正不断减少，对此一个合乎逻辑的应对方式就是提高
退休年龄
。但这会加剧老人的不平等状况，即使程度很轻微。
提高退休年龄
可以让
富有的劳动者
有更多时间来
扩大
自身优势。而当最终退休时，
寿命通常较短的
穷人享用自己
退休金
的时间也会更短。
Today’s youngsters may resent having to provide for more pensioners,
not least
because they feel that
older generations
have it easier than them. The OECD provides qualified support for this complaint.
Baby-boomers
(mostly born in the 1950s) have accumulated far more wealth (property, shares and other savings) than Generation X (mostly in the 1970s) and
millennials
(the 1980s and after).
如今的年轻人可能会为不得不供养更多老人而感到不满，
尤其
是因为他们觉得
上几代人
过得比自己轻松。经合组织的报告表明，年轻人的不满有充足的理由。
婴儿潮一代
（大多出生于上世纪
50
年代）积累的财富（房产、股票和其他积蓄）要远远多于
X
一代（主要出生于上世纪
70
年代）和
千禧一代
（出生于上世纪
80
年代及以后）。
But that is
partly because
they have had more time to do so. Comparing generations at a similar stage of life
paints a different picture.
Today’s young adults have a significantly higher
disposable income
than previous generations had at the same age. OECD citizens now
in their early 30s
have 7% (
数字收尾“准顺快”
) more than members of Generation X had at that age and over 40% more than boomers enjoyed when they were
similarly short in the tooth
. Youngsters may
sigh with impatience
when an old codger tells them how life was tougher “when I was your age”. But it was.
但这
在一定程度上是因为
婴儿潮一代有更多的时间来积累财富。如果将几代人的同一人生阶段进行对比，就会
得到不一样的结论
。如今年轻人的
可支配收入
明显高于同龄时期的上几代人。目前，经合组织成员国
30
岁出头
的公民收入比同龄时的
X
一代高出
7%
，比
同龄
时的婴儿潮一代高出
40%
。当老家伙对小伙子说，
“
我在你这个年纪（像你这么大）
”
生活要更艰难时，小伙子也许会
不耐烦地叹气
。但当时的确如此。
This millennial privilege is, however, smaller in America, which tends to
set the tone for
the
generation wars
. (Indeed Americans in their early 30s are slightly worse off than the preceding generation was at a similar age.) The gap also appears to close
as
the later generations get older. Gen-Xers were far more
comfortable
in their 30s than the people born a decade or two before them. But now they are in their 40s, their incomes have stopped rising, whereas their seniors
enjoyed strong gains
at the same age.
不过，美国千禧一代的这一优势却没那么显著，而美国往往是为
代际战争定下基调
的地方。（事实上，
30
岁出头的美国人比上一代人同龄时要稍穷一些）。
随着
后面几代人年龄渐长，差距似乎同样趋于消失。比起那些比他们早出生一二十年的人，
X
一代在
30
多岁时生活要
宽裕
得多，但现在他们已经
40
多岁了，收入已经停止增长，而其上一代人在
40
多岁时的收入却
增长强劲
。
This may
reflect
(
动词处理“隐词法”
) the
lingering
(
形容词转动词
) influence of the global financial crisis. But if this trajectory persists, a time may soon come when old folk
sigh with impatience
as youngsters tell them how much easier life was “when you were my age” (
一句话说不完的句子可考虑适当断句，不要被原文牵着鼻子走
).
这可能是
因为
全球金融危机的影响如今
依然存在
。但如果按照这个趋势发展下去，那么用不了多久，
就可能出现这样的场景
，年轻人对老年人说，“你在我这个年纪时”生活是多么轻松，而老年人却
不耐烦地直叹气
。
前期回顾
