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For example,
restaurants
may include
certain menu items （that are deliberately overpriced / in order to nudge people toward an option
that’s meant to seem reasonably priced in comparison
）.
例如，餐馆可能会在菜单上列出一些特意定成高价的菜品，从而“鼓励”人们去选择那些被设定成相较之下看起来价格更合理的菜品。
1.deliberately: done in a way that is intended or planned
2.mean to: to intend to do something or intend that someone else should do something
长时间的疫情隔离，欧洲各地区的“婴儿潮”并未如约而至，相反，不少国家出现了“婴儿荒”的现象。
Europe’s baby deficit is becoming impossible to ignore. In Rome on Friday, Italy’s prime minister, Mario Draghi, and Pope Francis were the star attendees at a special conference to discuss the country’s declining
birthrate
. According to latest figures, 2020 saw the lowest number of births recorded since Italian unification in 1861.
欧洲的婴儿（出生）不足的问题正逐渐不容忽视了。上周五在罗马，意大利总理马里奥·德拉吉和教皇方济各出席了一个讨论该国不断下降的出生率的特别会议。根据最新数据，欧洲2020年的出生人数是继1861年意大利统一以来最低的。
Spain is ageing at a similar pace, as is much of eastern Europe. In Britain, it is the same story. The Centre for Population Change recently predicted a post-pandemic decline in annual births, deepening a secular trend that has already taken the birthrate to “historically low levels”.
西班牙老龄化的速度与其类似，东欧的许多国家也是如此。在英国，情况也是一样。人口变化中心最近预测，疫情后年出生人数将出现下降，这将进一步加深已使出生率降至“历史最低水平”的长期趋势。
The social implications of these downward
trajectories
,
exacerbated
by Covid, are many and various. Assuming current demographic trends continue, Eurostat has calculated that the number of European over-65s will have grown by over 40% by 2050. Fewer people will be in work paying taxes when their pension and care bills arrive.
这些下行轨迹的社会影响是多种多样的，因新冠疫情而加剧。假设目前的人口趋势继续下去，欧盟统计局计算得出，到2050年，65岁以上的欧洲人的数量将增长40%以上。当需要支付他们的养老金和医疗费用时，只有很少的人在交税。
Against that
backdrop
,
rightwing nationalist parties
fantasising about a future without migrant labour may as well howl at the moon. Immigration seems likely to continue to be a structural necessity in western democracies, as well as a source of innovation and renewal.
在这样的背景下，幻想未来没有移民劳工的右翼民族主义政党可能会崩溃嚎叫。在西方民主国家，移民似乎仍将是一种结构性需求，也是创新和复兴的源泉。
But this is about more than the big picture.
For many young people, one of the most fundamental sources of human fulfilment – parenthood – is being delayed or forgone out of economic necessity.
Procreation should not be seen as a moral obligation,
let alone
as a patriotic duty. Since the 1960s, with the rise of
contraception
, declining western birthrates have been partly a result of greater freedom for women to shape and control their own lives. But starting a family should be a far easier option than it has become.
但这不仅仅关乎大局。
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生育不应被视为一种道德义务，更不应被视为一种爱国义务。自上世纪60年代以来，随着避孕措施的普及，西方国家出生率的下降，在一定程度上是因为女性在规划和控制自己的人生方面更加自由了。但是组建家庭本来应该是一个比现在容易得多的选择。
本文节选自：The Guardian（卫报）
发布时间：2021.05.17
作者：Editorial
原文标题：The Guardian view on declining birthrates: there may be trouble ahead
