英语阅读(二) |
2006-2-17 21:23:30 点击数： 进入论坛 |
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11 Where did this good economy go? It was inflated away. The price of gold, which I take as a proxy for the prices of all commodities, was $35 an ounce in those years. It is at roughly ten times that price today. To understand the numbers above in today's terms, you have to multiply by ten.
12 There is another answer, though: inflation caused the entire work force to be moved into higher tax brackets, thus reducing after-tax purchasing power. That is, my father's bindery job in 1954 paid $82 a week, with $80 after deductions; today, at $820 per week the net would be $662. A carpenter's $125 before deductions was as good as $1,200 today before payroll taxes, but the net paycheck was then $120; it's now the equivalent of $92.
13 A $20,000 bouse now costs at least $200,000, but with interest rates and property taxes being what they are, it's way out of the reach of a young person just out of college, not to mention high school.
14 With little inflation in the 1950s and'60s, capital was plentiful. If you looked like a good bet when you sought a bank loan, the lending officer would offer more than you thought you needed, at four or five percent interest.
15 capital was also plentiful because the gains on investments were lightly taxed for most of the work force. To pay the top effective capital-gains tax rate of 45 percent you had to be earning more than $100,000---the equivalent of $1 million today before taxes. Since capital gains were never adjusted ofr inflation, tobay your profit on a long-term investment can be taxed at the top rate of 28 percent even it your annual income is not much above the minimum waga.
16 To ordinary people, the economy doesn't look very good at all. After-tax incomes continue to decline in purchasing power. The jobs offered in the employment ads pay only a little more than the minimum wage, maybe $5 an hour. Compare that with minimum-wage jobs of the early 1950s, when 75 cents was worth today's $7.50 before and after taxes.
17 The difference, then and now, goes beyond the time warp of inflation. Forty years ago, a smaller percentage of the work force was employed as lawyers, accountants, regulators, bureaucrats, social workers. Members of Congress made $12,500, but did most of what needed to be done in less time with less than half the staff.
18 The November elections were a primal scream from the voters about the terrible inefficiency of our national government and its tax maze. As long as there was b Cold War, the people put up with all this inefficiency. Now, they say, it's time for fundamental change, to put thins back the way they should be.
19 It's not too much to ask to get moving in that direction. The truth is, President Clinton and the Democrats did get credit for the economy as it exists today. By past U.S. standards, it stinks.
61.President Clinton didn't get credit for the good economy because _______.
A. American economy is expanding and the nation's human and physical resources can be employed at a high degree of efficiency |
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| 2007年4月大考时间 |
| 2007年4月21日-4月22日 |
| 2007年7月加考时间 |
| 2007年7月7日-7月8日 |
| 2007年10月大考时间 |
| 2007年10月27日-10月28日 |
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