从美国不平等扩大看政府的作用

伴随着全球化进程,世界不平等与贫富差距也越来越扩大了,其中美国巨富阶层的崛起就是一个极端现象。2008年金融危机以后,这种贫富悬殊引发了“占领”运动等激烈抗议方式,并迅速蔓延开来,各种民粹主义思潮也甚嚣尘上。美国财富加速向1%甚至0.1%的超级新贵集中,而中产阶级与他们的差距不断拉大,严重打击了战后发达国家通过一系列政策和制度构建起来的以中产阶级为基本盘的稳定社会。美国政府的政策导向更有利于财富向极少数人集中,而这种集中,使得富人拥有更大的话语权,操弄金钱政治、影响政策制定乃至立法;政府还放任公司高管成为新一代超级新贵,高管们巧立名目,使自己与普通员工的收入差距高达数百倍;政府也没有对日渐式微的工会及其劳资关系失衡作出适宜反应,在不断加剧的收入和财富不平等面前无所作为。由此值得关注的是,政府在缩小不平等中究竟应该扮演什么角色？既然政府之手可以干预财富的分配和再分配,那我们的政策就不但要更加鼓励人们勤劳致富、创新致富,而且要在解决因政策失误而导致的巨额不当财富问题方面给出正确方法。
Abstract：The inequality and the wealth gap has been largely expanded with the globalization, while the rise of the Super-Rich in America can be regarded as an extreme example. This has evoked several dramatic and fast-spreading protests such as the “occupy movement” since the financial crisis. Trends of populism have attracted more and more attention and followers. In America, wealth is flowing faster to the 1%, or even 0.1% of population, the newly risen Super-Rich. The widening wealth gap between the middle class and Super-Rich has severely threatened the stable society based on the well-developed middle class in developed countries, which was constructed by a series of policies and systems. The policy orientation of Federal government has a tendency to make the wealth concentrate in the hands of the few. This in return increases the political influence of the rich, enabling them to play money politics and intervene policy-making or even law-making process. The government also allow senior executives of giant corporations to receive a payment hundreds of times higher than that of a general staff. It also fails to respond appropriately to the unbalanced labor-capital relationship. Then what role should government play in reducing the inequalities? Now that the visible hand of government can adjust the distribution and redistribution of wealth, the policy need not only to encourage people acquire wealth by hard-working and creativity, but also to deal with the large and improper profits which come from policy failures.