The Pandemic Has Been a Windfall for Billionaires

American billionaires are the biggest winners of the coronavirus pandemic.

?By Tim Smart, Contributing Editor?Feb. 24, 2021, at 11:53 a.m.

Windfall : n./?w?ndf??l/??1.意外之財(cái)；意外獲得的東西?windfall profits 意外的利潤?The government imposed a windfall tax (= a tax on profits to be paid once only, not every year) on some industries. 政府對某些行業(yè)征收暴利稅。2.風(fēng)吹落的果子（尤指蘋果）

The coronavirus numbers are?staggering.

Half a million dead, more than 28 million cases just in America alone.

But here's another number that is certainly eyebrow-raising: $4.2 trillion. That's the combined wealth of America's 664 billionaires as the one-year anniversary of the pandemic's assault on America nears. Not that they were suffering beforehand, but that number is 44%, or $1.3 trillion, more than just a year ago.

確診新冠的人數(shù)令人震驚！僅美國就有50萬新冠死亡人數(shù)，超過2800萬確診人數(shù)。但是還有一項(xiàng)令人吃驚的數(shù)字：4.2萬億美元。這是美國664位億萬富翁在疫情襲擊美國一周年之際的財(cái)富總和。這并不是說他們之前就遭受了損失，這個(gè)數(shù)字比一年前多44%，或者說是多1.3萬億美元。

staggering ?adj. /?st?ɡ?r??/ 令人難以相信的

eyebrow-raising:直譯是抬眉，意思是令人驚訝的，驚駭世俗的

The numbers are courtesy of?an analysis by Americans for Tax Fairness and the Institute for Policy Studies based on data from Forbes. And it is a stark reflection?of the way in which this recession has been a tale of haves and have nots.

這些數(shù)據(jù)是美國稅收公平協(xié)會和政策研究所基于《福布斯》的數(shù)據(jù)所做的分析得出的。這也鮮明地反映出，這次經(jīng)濟(jì)衰退是一個(gè)關(guān)于富人和窮人的故事。

courtesy of：經(jīng)由…提供…；承蒙…的好意；由于…

stark /stɑ?k/ 1.了無修飾的；荒涼的；粗陋的??I think white would be too stark for the bedroom. 我覺得臥室里用白色未免太素了。2.嚴(yán)酷的；赤裸裸的；真實(shí)而無法回避的??a stark choice 殘酷的選擇 ；3.（指區(qū)別）明顯的，鮮明的??stark differences 鮮明的區(qū)別??4.完全的；十足的??The children watched in stark terror. 孩子們極端恐懼地看著。

Millions of service industry workers, especially in the hospitality, leisure and restaurant industries are struggling to pay rent or?make ends meet even with more than $3 trillion in coronavirus relief from Washington. At the same time, homeowners and holders of financial assets like stocks have seen their holdings increase in value at record rates.

數(shù)以百萬計(jì)的服務(wù)行業(yè)工人，尤其是酒店、休閑和餐飲行業(yè)的工作人員，即使聯(lián)邦政府提供了超過3萬億美元的新冠救濟(jì)，但他們?nèi)耘f苦苦掙扎于支付租金或維持收支平衡。與此同時(shí)，房主和股票等金融資產(chǎn)的持有者看到他們所持資產(chǎn)的價(jià)值以創(chuàng)紀(jì)錄的速度增長。

make ends meet even ：收支均衡

"It is unseemly?that billionaires have experienced such gains as we mark half a million lives lost and millions more have lost their health, wealth and jobs," said Chuck Collins, director of the Program on Inequality at the IPS.

“億萬富翁們獲得這些財(cái)富是不合適的，因?yàn)槲覀冇?0萬人失去了生命，還有數(shù)百萬人失去了健康、財(cái)富和工作，”IPS的不平等項(xiàng)目主任查克·柯林斯(Chuck Collins)說。

unseemly ?adj. /?n?si?mli/ (行為等) 不禮貌的；不得體的；不相宜的

Frank Clemente, executive director of Americans for Tax Fairness, put the?disparity in outcomes from the pandemic in political terms at a time when Congress is debating President Joe Biden's $1.9 trillion relief plan.

美國稅收公平組織(Americans for Tax Fairness)執(zhí)行主任弗蘭克?克萊門特(Frank Clemente)在國會就美國總統(tǒng)拜登(Joe Biden)提出的1.9萬億美元減稅計(jì)劃進(jìn)行辯論之際，用政治術(shù)語描述了疫情造成的貧富差異。

disparity ?n. /d??sp?r?ti/（尤指因不公正對待引起的）不同，不等，差異，懸殊 ?the wide disparity between rich and poor 貧富懸殊

"Even as Congressional Republicans try to nickel-and-dime suffering Americans by opposing President Biden's American Rescue Plan, including its $1,400 relief checks, American billionaires have reaped $1.3 trillion in pandemic profits."

“盡管國會的共和黨人試圖通過反對拜登總統(tǒng)的美國救援計(jì)劃，包括反對1400美元的救濟(jì)支票，消耗受苦受難的美國人。但是美國的億萬富翁們卻從新冠大流行中收割了1.3萬億美元的疫情利潤?！?/span>

nickel-and-dime /?n?kl ?n ?da?m/：1.耗盡 ? A bad contractor may hide mistakes or blame someone else and nickel-and-dime you with extra charges. ?一個(gè)不道德的承包商可能會隱瞞自身的失誤或歸咎他人，以額外的收費(fèi)耗盡你的經(jīng)費(fèi)。2.只涉小錢的；微不足道的 ?a number of nickel-and-dime jobs – janitor, pastry chef, window washer. 一些無足輕重的工作：看門人、糕點(diǎn)師、擦窗工。

Most of the outsized gains the billionaire class has seen come from the record rise in the stock market and largely reflects paper wealth that could just as soon disappear if the market turns south. The richest of the rich are world-famous entrepreneurs such as Elon Musk, Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos and Mark Zuckerberg, who were founders of companies that have been among the most successful – and profitable – in history. Namely, Tesla, Microsoft, Amazon and Facebook.

億萬富翁階層的巨額收益大多來自股市創(chuàng)紀(jì)錄的上漲，大部分都是賬面財(cái)富，如果股市下跌，這些賬面財(cái)富可能很快就會消失。富豪中富豪是世界聞名的企業(yè)家，如埃隆·馬斯克(Elon Musk)、比爾·蓋茨(Bill Gates)、杰夫·貝佐斯(Jeff Bezos)和馬克·扎克伯格(Mark Zuckerberg)，他們創(chuàng)立的公司都是歷史上最成功、最賺錢的公司之一。也就是特斯拉、微軟、亞馬遜和Facebook。

These captains of modern industry often take their pay in stock rather than wages, so when the market goes up, their wealth rises. Still, the one-year return for the S&P 500, typically used as a proxy?for the overall market, is just a little over 15%. The Nasdaq index, which has a much higher proportion of technology companies in its makeup, including the four tech titans, is up 50% from one year ago.

這些現(xiàn)代工業(yè)巨頭的工資通常以股票而不是工資的形式支付，所以當(dāng)市場上漲時(shí)，他們的財(cái)富也會增加。不過，標(biāo)準(zhǔn)普爾500指數(shù)通常被用來衡量整個(gè)市場的一年回報(bào)率，也僅略高于15%。納斯達(dá)克指數(shù)較一年前上漲了50%，其中包括四大科技巨頭在內(nèi)的科技公司所占比例要高得多。

Proxy n. ??/?pr?ksi/??1.代理權(quán)；代表權(quán) ?a proxy vote 由他人代投的票；2. ~ (for sb) 代理人；受托人；代表 ?She is acting as proxy for her husband. 她做她丈夫的代表。3.[ C ] (術(shù)語) ~ for sth ( formal )（測算用的）代替物，指標(biāo)

According to the analysis by the two nonprofit groups, Musk led the pack with a gain of nearly $158 billion, followed by Bezos at $76.3 billion, Zuckerberg at $41 billion and Gates at $25.7 billion. Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin grew their wealth by $79 billion while heirs?to the Walmart fortune saw their wealth rise by $31.5 billion.

根據(jù)這兩家非營利組織的分析，馬斯克以近1580億美元的收入位居榜首，貝佐斯以763億美元的收入緊隨其后，扎克伯格和比爾蓋茨分別以410億美元和257億美元的收入位居第三、第四。谷歌創(chuàng)始人拉里·佩奇和謝爾蓋·布林的財(cái)富增加了790億美元，沃爾瑪(Walmart)的繼承人財(cái)富增加了315億美元。

Heir：繼承人

Legendary investor Warren Buffett, who said in a 2007 interview that he paid a total tax rate of 17.7% compared to the average tax for people who worked for him of 32.9%, saw his wealth increase by more than $24 billion. He has long argued for a simpler and fairer tax system.

傳奇投資家巴菲特(Warren Buffett)的財(cái)富增長了240多億美元。巴菲特在2007年的一次采訪中說，他繳納的總稅率為17.7%，而為他工作的人的平均稅率為32.9%。他一直主張建立一個(gè)更簡單、更公平的稅收體系。

Buffett and other wealthy Americans often pay lower tax rates, though not actually lower taxes as measured in dollars, because they pay the 15% rate levied on capital gains from the sale of assets rather than on wages which are taxed at various rates typically close to twice that level.

巴菲特和其他富有的美國人通常支付較低的稅率，盡管按美元計(jì)算并不是更低的稅率，因?yàn)樗麄冎Ц兜亩惵适菍Τ鍪圪Y產(chǎn)的資本利得征收的15%，而不是對工資征收的15%，工資的稅率不同，通常接近這一水平的兩倍。

Some free-market advocates argue that wealthy entrepreneurs are willing to take outsize risks and therefore reap outsize rewards while exposing themselves to potential losses. Musk, for example, has bet heavily on electric vehicles and private space exploration, costly ventures that few could underwrite. Similarly, Gates and former Apple chief Steve Jobs helped launch the technological revolution of the personal computer. Many have given heavily to charitable causes. Gates, in particular, has championed and funded vaccine research and deployment especially in poor countries.

一些自由市場的擁護(hù)者認(rèn)為，富有的企業(yè)家愿意冒巨大的風(fēng)險(xiǎn)，因此在冒著潛在的損失的同時(shí)收獲巨大的回報(bào)。例如，馬斯克在電動汽車和私人太空探索上押下了重注，這些投資成本高昂，很少有人能夠承擔(dān)。同樣，蓋茨和蘋果公司前首席執(zhí)行官史蒂夫·喬布斯發(fā)起了個(gè)人電腦的技術(shù)革命。許多人給慈善事業(yè)捐了一大筆錢。特別是蓋茨，他支持并資助了疫苗的研究和部署，特別是在貧窮國家。

原文鏈接：https://www.usnews.com/news/economy/articles/2021-02-24/the-pandemic-has-been-a-windfall-for-billionai