豆知识 2011-11-27&12-03 美国政府破产的故事 (2/3)
时间:2018-12-03 作者:英语课 分类:英语解说豆知识2011年
英语课
Well, first the military takes the biggest chunk 1, 726 billion dollars in 2011. Wow! We could build a lot of better future with that kind of money. Spending billions on fighter planes we don't need or wars with no end and then saying we're broke just isn't honest. It's like calling your kid from your billion-dollar yacht to tell you can't afford her school lunch money.
Then hundreds of billions more go to propping 2 up the dinosaur 3 economy. You know, the obsolete 4 system we talked about in The Story of Stuff, the one that produces more pollution, greenhouse gases and garbage than any other on earth, and doesn't even make us happy. In so many ways, it's just not working. But we're keeping it on life support instead of building something better. A lot of that life support comes in the form of subsidies 5.
A subsidy 6 is a giveaway that gives some companies a lift over others. That's not necessarily a bad thing. We should help companies that are building a better future. The problem is our government keeps lifting up companies that are actually dragging us down. Everywhere you look along the dinosaur economy, you'll find these subsidies.
There’re spending subsidies: where the government just gives our money away like payments that benefit big agribusiness while helping 7 drive family farms off a cliff, or the less obvious version where the government foots the bill for things corporations should pay for themselves like cleaning up toxic 8 chemical spills or giant livestock 9 manure 10 ponds, or building roads that only go to one place like a new Walmart, or paying for polluting and wasteful 11 garbage incinerators that would never make financial sense to build on their own.
Then there’re tax subsidies which excuse big corporations from contributing their fair share, like the enormous tax breaks granted to oil and gas companies even in times of record profits. These subsidies amount to billions we should be collecting and putting to good use.
And then there're risk transfer subsidies where our government acts as an investment bank or an insurance company for corporations doing risky 12 things, like building nuclear reactors 13. If anything goes wrong, we have to cover for them.
There’re freebie subsidies, where our government gives stuff that belongs to all of us to corporations for cheap or even free. That's billions more that we should be collecting but never see. Like permits to mine public lands granted at prices set in the Mining Law of 1872. Really? 1872! President Grant signed this law to encourage settlement of the West. News flash, it's settled. And all this doesn't even count externalized costs. They don't show up on any spreadsheet and could amount to trillions of dollars including all of the damage to the environment, public health and the climate that this dinosaur economy causes. Without laws that make the polluters pay, we all pay with the loss of clean air and water, of increased asthma 14 and cancer.
1 chunk
n.厚片,大块,相当大的部分(数量)
- They had to be careful of floating chunks of ice.他们必须当心大块浮冰。
- The company owns a chunk of farmland near Gatwick Airport.该公司拥有盖特威克机场周边的大片农田。
2 propping
支撑
- You can usually find Jack propping up the bar at his local. 你常常可以看见杰克频繁出没于他居住的那家酒店。
- The government was accused of propping up declining industries. 政府被指责支持日益衰败的产业。
3 dinosaur
n.恐龙
- Are you trying to tell me that David was attacked by a dinosaur?你是想要告诉我大卫被一支恐龙所攻击?
- He stared at the faithful miniature of the dinosaur.他凝视著精确的恐龙缩小模型。
4 obsolete
adj.已废弃的,过时的
- These goods are obsolete and will not fetch much on the market.这些货品过时了,在市场上卖不了高价。
- They tried to hammer obsolete ideas into the young people's heads.他们竭力把陈旧思想灌输给青年。
5 subsidies
n.补贴,津贴,补助金( subsidy的名词复数 )
- European agriculture ministers failed to break the deadlock over farm subsidies. 欧洲各国农业部长在农业补贴问题上未能打破僵局。
- Agricultural subsidies absorb about half the EU's income. 农业补贴占去了欧盟收入的大约一半。 来自《简明英汉词典》
6 subsidy
n.补助金,津贴
- The university will receive a subsidy for research in artificial intelligence.那个大学将得到一笔人工智能研究的补助费。
- The living subsidy for senior expert's family is included in the remuneration.报酬已包含高级专家家人的生活补贴。
7 helping
n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的,辅助的
- The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
- By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。
8 toxic
adj.有毒的,因中毒引起的
- The factory had accidentally released a quantity of toxic waste into the sea.这家工厂意外泄漏大量有毒废物到海中。
- There is a risk that toxic chemicals might be blasted into the atmosphere.爆炸后有毒化学物质可能会进入大气层。
9 livestock
n.家畜,牲畜
- Both men and livestock are flourishing.人畜两旺。
- The heavy rains and flooding killed scores of livestock.暴雨和大水淹死了许多牲口。
10 manure
n.粪,肥,肥粒;vt.施肥
- The farmers were distributing manure over the field.农民们正在田间施肥。
- The farmers used manure to keep up the fertility of their land.农夫们用粪保持其土质的肥沃。
11 wasteful
adj.(造成)浪费的,挥霍的
- It is a shame to be so wasteful.这样浪费太可惜了。
- Duties have been reassigned to avoid wasteful duplication of work.为避免重复劳动浪费资源,任务已经重新分派。
12 risky
adj.有风险的,冒险的
- It may be risky but we will chance it anyhow.这可能有危险,但我们无论如何要冒一冒险。
- He is well aware how risky this investment is.他心里对这项投资的风险十分清楚。