在许多国家，有关婚姻的陈规陋俗已得到极大消解，开始显现出婚姻的本来面目：平等、自由、爱意。但在富裕国家，婚姻正变成强化社会阶层的工具：有钱人“强强联合”，家庭美满，普通人筹备万事，亦不敢妄谈婚嫁。民事结合的推出，或许是提升婚姻信心、提高结婚率的关键一招。
婚还是不婚 这是个问题
译者：唐 萧
校对：刘 璠
策划：刘 璠
A more perfect union
更完美的结合
本文选自 The Economist
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Marriage idealises permanence, and yet it is changing more rapidly than at any time in its history. Almost everywhere it is becoming freer, more equal and more satisfying. As our special report this week explains, wedlock has become so good that it is causing trouble.
婚姻以永恒为理想状态，而如今，它的变化之快却是前所未有。几乎在所有地方，婚姻都变得更自由、更平等，也更令人满意。但正如我们本周的特别报道所述，婚姻的现状有点美好的过了头，带来了一些问题。
The most benign changes are taking place in poor and middle-income countries (where most people live). Child marriage, once rife, is ebbing. So is cousin marriage, with its attendant risk of genetic defects, though it is still fairly common in the Middle East and parts of Asia. Relations between husbands and wives have become more equal (though not equal enough). As women earn more and the stigma of divorce fades, more men are finding that they cannot treat their wives as servants (or, worse,
punchbags
), because women can credibly threaten to walkaway.
关于婚姻最积极的变化发生在贫困和中等收入国家（也就是大多数人居住的地方）。曾经一度猖獗的童婚现象势头渐弱。可导致遗传缺陷的近亲结婚现象也逐渐减少——尽管这种情况在中东和部分亚洲地区依然相当普遍。夫妻间的地位虽未达到最平等的状态，但亦有所进步。随着女性收入提高，加之社会对于离婚的态度逐渐宽容，越来越多的男性发现，他们无法再把妻子当做佣人使唤，更别说是当
出气筒
了，因为女性很有可能就此离开你。
p
unchbag
A punchbag is a heavy leather bag, filled with a firm material, that hangs on a rope. Punchbags are used by boxers and other sportsmen for exercise and training.
In some regions change has been astoundingly quick. In India the share of women marrying by the age of 18 has dropped from 47% to 27% in a single decade. “Love marriages” remain disreputable in India, and arranged marriages the norm. But, as in many traditional societies, young people have more say. Some can veto the mates their families suggest; others choose their own, subject to a parental veto. Across the world, popular culture is raising expectations of what a good marriage is like, and dating websites are giving singletons vastly more options.
在一些地区，婚姻变化的速度快得惊人。仅在十年间，印度18岁前结婚的女性比例就从47%下降到了27%。在这里，“恋爱结婚”有辱家门，包办婚姻则是常态。但是，和许多传统社会一样，印度的年轻人如今拥有了更多的话语权。有些人可以不接受父母给他们物色的对象，还有些人可以自己选择伴侣，但父母有权反对。在世界范围内，流行文化正在提升人们对于美好婚姻的期望，而婚恋网站也为单身人士提供了极大的选择范围。
Ring the changes
婚姻变奏
The worrying part is what is going on in rich countries. In the West marriage is in excellent shape, but only among the well off. Elite couples delay tying the knot to allow time to get established in a career, but they still tie it before having children. Working-class people, by contrast, are dramatically less likely to put a ring before a cradle than in previous generations. Among the college-educated in America, only 12% of births are to unmarried mothers; among those who dropped out of high school, the rate is 70%, up from 43% in the early 1980s. Similar trends can be seen across the wealthy world: the average out of-wedlock birth rate for OECD countries is 40%.
令人担忧的变化则发生在发达国家。在西方，婚姻状况相当不错，但仅限于富人阶层。精英情侣为更好地发展事业而推迟组建家庭，但他们仍会先结婚后生子。反观工薪阶层，相比上几辈人，他们先婚后子的几率就要小得多。在拥有大学文凭的美国人中，只有12%会未婚先孕，而在那些高中就辍学的人群当中，该比例从上世纪80年代的43%一路攀升到了如今的70%。发达国家的情况普遍相似：经济合作与发展组织（OECD）成员国的平均未婚生育率为40%。
If marriage were just a piece of paper this would not matter. However, it is much more than that. Although a wedding cannot turn a flimsy relationship into a strong one, it adds
scaffoldin
g
that can save one that is in between. Making a public, lifelong commitment to another person is not the same as drifting into cohabitation to share the rent. And this matters a lot if children are involved. One study in America found that 18% of married couples broke up within five years of a birth, compared with 47% of cohabiting couples.
如果婚姻只是一纸文书，那倒也无妨。但实际情况却远没有那么简单。虽然一场婚礼不能把一对关系脆弱的恋人变得情比金坚，但却可以为某些并没有那么糟糕的关系添加
助力
，使之免于破裂。在公开场合许一人一生，岂能与为分担房租而草率同居混为一谈。如果有了孩子，那这一点就更为重要了。美国的一项研究表明，有18%的夫妻在孩子出生后的五年内会分开，而在同居情侣中，这一比例则高达47%。
scaffolding
['scaf·fold·ing || 'skæfəldɪŋ] n. 脚手架; 搭脚手架的材料
Children from stable backgrounds tend to do better in school and life—and are more likely to form stable unions of their own. Add the trend towards “assortative mating”, when high-achievers marry other high-achievers, and the gap between elite and working-class families yawns. Affluent parents intensively nurture their children for success; the offspring of less fortunate homes fall far behind before they ever set foot in a school. The marriage gap makes rich countries more unequal, and retards social mobility.
家庭健全的孩子通常在学校和生活中表现得更好，日后自己的家庭生活也会比较稳定。加之“门当户对”的观念，“强强联合”使得精英阶层家庭和工薪阶层家庭之间的差距日渐悬殊。财力雄厚的家长精心培育自己的孩子，为他们铺就成功大道；家庭条件差一些的孩子们还未踏进学校门，就已经被甩得没影了。这种婚姻阶层化的现象令富裕国家变得更加不公平，阻碍了社会的流动性。
Improbable as it may seem, this pattern is likely to reach every corner of the globe. The forces that have shaken up marriage in rich countries—rising individualism, education, women’s
economic emancipation
—are spreading. It is not just a Western trend. For a long time Japan resisted it: highly educated women were less likely to marry than others. Now they are more likely to (and less likely to divorce).
说出来也许没人信，这种婚姻模式很可能会延伸到世界的各个角落。个人主义兴起、教育水平提高、女性
经济独立
——这些重塑婚姻的力量正在发达国家蔓延，而且不仅限于西方国家。长久以来，日本的情况一度是相反的：高学历女性更不易走进婚姻。但现在，她们的结婚率却比一般女性要来得高，而且离婚率也较低。
The revolution in family life is largely beneficial, and there is not much that governments can do about its harmful side effects. America has tried hard to promote wedlock among poor people since the 1990s, but failed utterly. Countries should try to ensure that their welfare systems do not
penalise
marriage among the poor. They should not, however, lurch in the other direction by providing tax benefits to the married. Given the growing social stratification of marriage, such measures are exceedingly regressive.
家庭生活的演变大体是件好事，但对于其产生的有害副作用，政府所能做的也很有限。自上世纪90年代以来，美国政府就致力于提高穷人的结婚率，但毫无效果。各国应保证本国的社会福利体系不会让穷人因为结
婚
而
处于不利地位
，但也不应该倒向另一个极端，即为已婚人群提供税收优惠。鉴于婚姻的社会阶层化现象越来越严重，这些措施无疑是百害而无一益的。
penalize
UK USUALLY penalise /ˈpiː.nə.laɪz/ verb [T] to cause someone a disadvantage
Working-class Westerners have not given up on marriage. On the contrary, many idealise it. Rather than seeing it as the start of a couple’s journey together, as in the past, they often see it as something not to try until they arrive—with a good job, a house, financial stability and a lavish party. Many feel they are not “ready” to marry, even as they embark on parenthood. Helpfully, some European countries have begun to offer
civil unions
for heterosexuals. (Gay couples already had that option.) They confer nearly all the rights of marriage but entail less of the intimidating hoopla. These now account for a fifth of new formal unions in the Netherlands, and more in some working-class districts. They have not undermined marriage so far. It is a small fix for a huge problem, but it might help.
西方的工薪阶层并没有对婚姻失去信心，相反，很多人对婚姻十分向往。过去，他们把婚姻看作是和伴侣一同开启的人生新征程，如今，他们将婚姻视作条件就绪后才愿意去尝试的事情。这些条件包括：好工作、房子、稳定收入和一场盛大的婚礼。即使很多人已为人父母，他们依然觉得自己还没做好结婚的“准备”。好在一些欧洲国家已经开始为异性恋提供
民事结合
