The American Dream Is Killing Us
美国梦正在杀死美国人
原文： https://markmanson.net/american-dream
译文：察网 http://www.cwzg.cn/theory/202003/56088.html
Mark Manson
【法意导言】“美国梦”是支撑美国人民奋斗生活的精神支柱。自独立以来，世世代代的
美国人民都坚信，只要经过努力不懈的艰苦奋斗，就一定会获得更好的生活，走向成功的
巅峰。历史似乎印证了这一观念。然而时移世易，“美国梦”的合理性被一次次的质疑。
自由撰稿人马克‧曼森于2016年10月27日在个人网站上发表文章，用柠檬水生意做类比，
阐述了“美国梦”成功的原因。在此基础上，他分析了美国例外主义的内涵，其在历史上
的短暂存留造就了“美国梦”，而美国梦的停滞则暴露了美国例外主义论断的虚弱。更为
致命的是，“美国梦”给美国人民的价值取向带来的是危险的甚至是破坏性的影响。美国
梦正在杀死美国人民。
Imagine this: you’re a kid again, and you want to sell lemonade in your
neighborhood. So you set up your little lemonade stand with your cardboard
sign written in crayon and get to work.
设想你是一个孩子，你想在你家附近卖柠檬水，于是你搞了一个小摊位，用蜡笔和纸板做
了一个标牌，然后开始营业了。
The first day, one person comes and buys some lemonade. Then the second day,
two people come. Then the third, three. And the fourth, four. Within a month,
you’re serving dozens of people lemonade every day and the demand just keeps
growing.
第一天，来了一个客人。第二天，有两个。第三天，三个。第四天，四个。不到一个月，
你每天都能有几十个客人，而且客户量一直在增长。
But it gets better. Not only does the whole neighborhood want a taste of your
sweet, citrus squeeze, but the price of lemons just seems to keep getting
cheaper. At first, you can get five lemons for a dollar. Then the next week
you can get eight for a dollar. Then the next you can get twelve. And on and
on. Within a few months, you’re a lemonade money-making machine.
更好的是，不仅整个小区都想要品尝你甘甜可口的柠檬水，柠檬的价格也一直在降低。一
开始，你用一美元可以买到5个柠檬，第二周，你用同样的价钱可以买到8个，再下一周你
能买到12个。价格一直降一直降，几个月不到，你就赚的盆满钵满，成为了一个柠檬水大
亨。
Of course, news gets out about your magical lemonade neighborhood. And pretty
soon other kids are setting up their lemonade stands all around you.
顺理成章地，你的传奇故事在小区传播开来了。很快，其他孩子也开始在你周围摆起了卖
柠檬水的摊位。
But it doesn’t matter, the demand just keeps growing. So you welcome these
other kids. You tell them, “This is the neighborhood of opportunity, where
anyone can sell lemonade and make money.” Meanwhile, as if by magic, more
people show up every day for lemonade, and the price of lemons just keep
getting cheaper.
但这没关系，需求一直在增长。因此，你对其他孩子表示欢迎。你告诉他们， “这是一
个充满机会的小区，任何人都可以在这里卖柠檬水赚钱。”与此同时，仿佛魔法一样，越
来越多人来买柠檬水，而柠檬也越来越便宜。
You and the other kids realize something: it is impossible to not make money
in this neighborhood. The only way not to make money is to be either lazy or
completely incompetent.1 Your lemonade opportunities are only limited by the
time and energy you’re willing to put into it. The sky is the limit, and the
only thing standing between you and your dreams of lemonade riches is
yourself.
你和其他孩子意识到：在这个小区一定能赚到钱，除非你太懒惰或者太无能。你的柠檬水
生意的好坏只取决于你愿意投入的时间和精力。成功无止境，你是唯一能决定你的财富梦
想的人。
Unsurprisingly, a culture starts to develop around the neighborhood.
Narratives are formed about certain kids who sell lots of lemonade and other
kids who don’t. This kid is a genius and sells lemonade 20 hours a day. This
kid is a loser who couldn’t sell ice water in a desert, not to mention he
probably drinks half of his own stash.
不出所料，在小区周围开始形成一种文化，把孩子们分成可以卖出很多柠檬水的和不能卖
出柠檬水的。这个孩子是个天才，而且每天花20个小时卖柠檬水；那个孩子是个废物，他
在沙漠中都卖不掉一瓶冰水，更别说他可能自己先把用来卖的柠檬水喝掉一半。
Kids come to see life in a pretty simple way: people get what they deserve.
Or put similarly: people deserve whatever they get. And if they want
something better, they should have been smarter and/or worked harder for it.
孩子们以一种非常简单的方式来看待生活：种瓜得瓜、种豆得豆，或者说，不管你得到的
是什么，都是你应得的。如果你想要更好的东西，你就得更聪明，或更努力，或者兼而有
之。
Time goes by. And news of this magical lemonade neighborhood — now serving
lemonade to thousands of customers daily — starts to spread widely. Kids
start bussing in from faraway neighborhoods to try their hand at making it in
the lemonade world. They take the worst jobs squeezing lemons and throwing
out garbage because they know that with the boundless opportunity in the
lemonade neighborhood, it’s merely a matter of time before they move up and
start making good money themselves.
时光流逝。你的小区现在为成千上万的客户提供柠檬水，这个神奇的柠檬水小区开始声名
远播。其他小区的孩子不远万里来到柠檬水小区，想要分一杯羹。他们从事榨柠檬和扔垃
圾这类最底端的工作，因为他们知道，柠檬水小区有无限的机遇，他们总有一天会能够往
上爬然后赚大钱，那只是时间问题。
This goes on for months, and the kids in the neighborhood begin to realize
something else: that their neighborhood is special. It seems to be chosen by
God. After all, if kids are bussing in from all over town just to sell drops
of lemonade here, there must be something truly special about the
opportunities present. The kids here have far more money. And they work twice
as hard as kids anywhere else. This really must be an exceptional place.
这样的情况持续了几个月，小区的孩子们开始意识到一些其他的情况：这个小区很特别。
它似乎受到了上帝的眷顾。毕竟，如果所有镇上的孩子来这个小区只是为了卖一些柠檬水
，这个地方肯定有什么特别的机遇。这里的孩子有更多的钱，他们付出的努力是别的地方
孩子的两倍。这里一定是天选之地。
But then one day, things begin to change. First, you hear that the Japanese
kids across town have figured out how to produce twice the lemonade for half
the price, making it impossible for you to compete. Then, there are rumors
that the massive influx of poor Chinese kids are undercutting your prices and
stealing away your customers.
但是有一天，事情开始发生变化。一开始，你听说镇上的日本小孩想出了只用一半的价钱
生产两倍量的柠檬水的方法，让你根本无法与他们竞争。接着，你又听说贫穷的中国孩子
的大量进入市场，压低市价来抢走你的顾客。
But secondly, some of the more successful lemonade vendors have gone around
and bought up the less successful lemonade stands. So instead of hundreds of
independent lemonade vendor kids, you have about a dozen uber-rich kids
controlling the majority of the lemonade market. And to cut costs and bring
in good returns for their investors, they start paying workers less for the
same work. But instead of telling the kids this, they tell them to simply
work harder. After all, people deserve whatever they earn, right?
此外，有一些比较成功的柠檬水商收购了那些不太成功的柠檬水摊。因此，几百个独立的
柠檬水摊贩没有了，取而代之的是十几个超级富豪，这十几个孩子几乎垄断了市场。同时
，为了降低成本并为他们的投资者带来丰厚的回报，他们开始减少工人的工资，尽管工人
们干的活还是一样的。但他们没有告诉工人们这个事实，相反，他们让工人们只要更努力
的工作就行了。毕竟，不管是什么，那都是你应得的，不是么？
It happens slowly at first. But then the reality becomes unavoidable: kids in
the neighborhood are now making less money even though they are working
harder and longer than ever before.
一开始变化是缓慢的。但渐渐的，小区的孩子们赚的钱越来越少，尽管他们工作的强度和
时间都一直在增长，这是必然的。
But beliefs lag behind reality. People who lose massive amounts of weight
still see themselves as overweight and unattractive for years. People who
used to get bullied when they were young grow up to be unassuming adults who
constantly underestimate others’ ability to accept them.
但是认知是滞后于现实的。成功减重的人在好长一段时间里还是会觉得自己太胖而不受欢
迎。幼时曾经被霸凌的人长大后还是会自卑，认为不会有人能接受自己。
And culture is no different. The economic reality of the lemonade stands has
now shifted, and it’s not a bright outlook. But the children’s beliefs
persist: the underlying culture stays the same.
文化也不例外。柠檬水摊的经济情况已然改变，前景并不乐观。但是孩子们的认知并未改
变：因为文化并未改变。
As a result, the blame game begins. After all, it can’t be the beliefs that
are wrong, it must be someone else who is screwing things all up.
就这样，大家开始互相责备。毕竟，认知是不可能错的，一定是有什么人把事情搞砸了。
The educated kids who had taken the time and money to earn degrees in
lemonade squeezing and street vending looked at the kids without credentials
as weak-minded and inferior simpletons who brought their misfortune upon
themselves. The hardworking kids who started with nothing looked at the more
fortunate kids who were handed their first lemonade jobs and blamed them for
being entitled and unprepared for setbacks. Soon, the neighborhood turned in
upon itself and began to devour itself. Battle lines were drawn. Factions
were born. Factions that were political and extreme and fervent and
contradictory. Yet the underlying assumption remained. The world changed, but
the assumption remained.
那些投入时间和金钱来获得柠檬水生产和销售方面学位的孩子看不起那些没有证书的孩子
，认为他们智力低下、能力不足，因此他们的不幸都是自找的。而那些白手起家、辛苦劳
作的孩子则责备那些一开始就幸运地从事柠檬水事业的孩子，认为他们被上天偏爱而不能
承受风雨。很快，小区内部开始分化斗争，形成了不同的战线和派别。这些派别是政治的
、极端的、狂热的，也是互相矛盾的。但是基本的假设还是没有改变。世界变了，但假设
仍然没变。
AMERICAN EXCEPTIONALISM
美国例外主义
Since the beginning, Americans2 have always seen themselves as exceptional.3
And in many ways, the US has been an historic exception.
从一开始，美国人就一直认为自己是例外的。确实，从很多角度来说，美国一直是一个历
史性的例外。
In no other time in world history has a group of relatively well-educated and
industrious people been essentially handed a sparsely-populated continent
replete with natural resources, wreathed by two vast oceans on each side
protecting it from any potential invaders.4
一群受过良好教育的、勤劳的人们来到一个人口稀少的大陆，这里有丰富的自然资源，两
边广阔的海洋环绕着这片大陆，保护其免受任何潜在入侵者的侵略。这在世界历史上是绝
无仅有的。
Yes, for the first 300 years of its history, the US was the lemonade stand
where more and more customers magically showed up. Whereas civilizations in
Europe and Asia grew, peaked, and died many times over, the people of the US
never had to deal with such limiting factors. Economic opportunity and
progress appeared to be god given — such a constant that generations of
people came and went without knowing life without it.
确实，在其历史的前300年中，美国就是那个柠檬水摊位，越来越多的顾客魔术般地出现
在这里。在欧洲和亚洲，文明不断增长繁荣，达到顶峰，直至消亡，循环往复，而美国人
民却从未碰到这些限制因素。上天似乎将经济机遇和进步永远赐予他们，世世代代美国人
一直这样生活着。
The United States’ meteoric rise to world superpower happened because of the
confluence of four unique factors that it benefitted from greatly:
美国之所以能迅速崛起，成为世界超级大国，是因为四个独特因素的共同作用：
Unlimited Land – From the very beginning, the US enjoyed a constant state of
expansion. It took over 100 years from the country’s inception for it to
stretch itself from ‘sea to shining sea.’ In the 20th century, the US added
territories in the Caribbean and Pacific, most notably Hawaii and Alaska.
Cheap and fertile farmland was always plentiful. And natural resources
appeared to be endless, with massive reserves of oil, coal, timber, and
precious metals that are still being discovered today.
1.无限的土地——从一开始，美国就一直处于不断扩张的状态。自建国起，美国花了100
多年的时间将其版图从“大西洋延伸到太平洋”。在20世纪，美国又增加了加勒比海和太
平洋地区的领土，主要是夏威夷和阿拉斯加。因此，美国总是有廉价肥沃的农田和似乎取
之不尽自然资源，时至今日，大量的石油，煤炭，木材和贵金属资源仍在被发掘。
Unlimited Cheap Labor – The vast majority of the United States has remained
sparsely populated throughout its history. In fact, it was a real concern of
the founding fathers and they believed they needed to attract a steady flow
of immigrants from all over the world to develop a robust and self-sustaining
economy. To do so, they created a democratic system that promoted
entrepreneurialism and attracted talent. This generated an endless influx of
cheap, industrious labor that still continues to this day.
2.无限的廉价劳动力——纵观其历史，美国的绝大多数地区人口仍然很少。事实上这也是
美国的开国元勋们真正关心的问题。因此，他们认为美国需要吸引来自世界各地的稳定移
民，以发展强健而可持续的经济。为此，他们创建了民主制度，倡导企业家精神并吸引人
才。就这样，美国拥有了无限的廉价且勤奋的劳动力，直到今天仍然是这样。
And that’s not even mentioning that little thing we had for a while called ‘
slavery.’
我们还没有提美国历史上曾经存在了一段时间的‘奴隶制度’。
Unlimited Innovation – Perhaps the one thing the US system got right more
than anything else is that it is set up to reward ingenuity and innovation.
If you come up with the latest, greatest idea, it’s here, more than anywhere
else, that you’ll get rewarded for it. As such, many of the great
technological advances in the last few centuries came from brilliant
immigrants that the US attracted to its soil.
3.无限的创新——美国的制度奖励匠人精神和创新精神，这或许是它做得最对的一件事情
。如果你的创意是最新最好的，那在世界范围内美国是最能够给你回报的地方。因此，在
过去几个世纪里，许多伟大的技术进步都来自于被吸引到美国的杰出移民。
Geographic Isolation – Civilizations in Europe and Asia were invaded,
conquered, invaded again, conquered again, back and forth with the tides of
history wiping cultures and peoples from the map over and over again. Each
time, the destruction set society back, forcing them to reconsider themselves
as they rebuilt.
4.地理的隔离——在欧洲和亚洲，许多文明在历史的潮流中被一次又一次地侵略和征服，
文化和种族在这种往复的冲击中消失灭绝。而每次破坏产生的社会倒退让人们在重建文明
的时候不得不重新反思自身。
But not the United States. It was just too bloody far away. I mean, if you’
re Napoleon, why load up a bunch of expensive ships and sail for weeks, when
you can just invade Italy, like, tomorrow?
但美国不是这样。它太远了。我的意思是，如果你是拿破仑，你明天就可以打进意大利，
何苦大费周章去侵略美国呢？
As a result, the US developed a sense of being isolated from the world. With
the exception of Pearl Harbor (which took a lot of fucking effort from
Imperial Japan), we’ve just been impossible to get to.
因此，美国似乎是与世隔绝。除了珍珠港（也让日本帝国花了很大代价才到达）之外，美
国是一直无法到达的地方。
Americans take this for granted. But its effect cannot be overstated. As
recently as a couple decades ago, much of Europe feared an imminent invasion
from the east. Hell, some European countries still fear that invasion.6
美国人将这种地理上的隔绝认为是理所当然的。但是它的作用不能被夸大。就在大约几十
年前，许多欧洲国家还担心从东方来的侵略。现在，一些欧洲国家仍然担心被侵入。
It’s from this intersection of good fortune, plentiful resources, massive
amounts of land, and creative ingenuity drawn from around the world that the
idea of the American Dream was born.
美国梦这一想法的诞生，正是运气、丰富的资源、大量的土地，以及来自世界各地的人才
多种因素的结合。
The American Dream is simple: it’s the unwavering belief that anybody —
you, me, your friends, your neighbors, grandma Verna — can become
exceedingly successful, and all it takes is the right amount of work,
ingenuity, and determination. Nothing else matters. No external force. No
bout of bad luck. All one needs is a steady dosage of grit and ass-grinding
hard work. And you too can own a McMansion with a three-car garage… you lazy
sack of shit.
美国梦很简单：就是坚信任何人——你、我、你的朋友、邻居、甚至奶奶辈的老人家——
只要他努力坚持，有匠心和决心，都可以非常成功。其他因素都无所谓。没有外部因素干
扰，也不存在运气这回事。只要一直保持决心并辛劳工作，你也会拥有一套有三车位车库
的大别墅。除非你懒得令人发指。
And in a country with constantly increasing lemonade customers, endlessly
expanding land ownership, endlessly expanding labor pool, endlessly expanding
innovation, this was true.
Until recently…
而在美国这个客户、土地、劳动力、和创新技术都不断增长的国家里，这是真的。直到最
近…
THE STAGNATING AMERICAN DREAM
停滞的美国梦
In the future, people will probably point to the 9/11 terrorist attacks as
the inflection point where the US began its slow descent away from global
dominance. But the truth is that the deteriorating forces have been at work
within the country for decades.
未来的人们可能会将9/11恐怖袭击作为美国开始失去全球主导地位的节点。但事实是，破
坏的力量已在美国内部存在数十年了。
By almost every major statistical measurement, the average American is worse
off than they were a generation ago. Some pundits have taken to blaming the
younger generations, saying that they’re entitled, self-centered, too
absorbed in their smartphones to work,8 and while some of those complaints
may have a grain of truth to them, the data suggests that the kids are not
the problem.
几乎每项主要的统计数据都显示美国人的平均状况比上一代差。一些专家指责年轻一代，
说他们生来优越、以自我为中心、过于沉迷于智能手机而不能好好工作。尽管其中一些批
评可能是对的，但数据表明年轻一代并不是问题所在。
Generally speaking, Americans today, especially young Americans, are the most
educated and productive generation in US history. But they are also
incredibly underemployed or unemployed
一般而言，当今的美国人，尤其是年轻的美国人，是美国历史上受教育程度和生产能力最
高的一代。但难以置信的是，年轻一代不能充分就业甚至是不能就业的情况也很严重。
This is for the simple reason that there are no jobs, especially middle-class
jobs. Despite Obama’s impressive proclamation that he’s halved the
unemployment rate since he took office, most of the drop in unemployment
since the 2008 crisis has come from part-time or low-skilled jobs, and from
people leaving the workforce altogether.
原因很简单，没有工作，特别是给中产阶级的工作。奥巴马说自其就职总统以来，失业率
降低了一半，尽管这令人印象深刻，但事实上，自2008年危机以来，失业率的下降大部分
原因在于人们只能找到一些兼职或低技能工作，还有一部分人失去了就业意愿不再是劳动
力的一部分。
Today, approximately 25% of people with college degrees don’t have a job and
aren’t even looking.
现在，大概25%的高校毕业生没有工作也根本没有在找工作。
But why? What happened? Where did we go wrong or did we even go wrong? Who
can we blame in angry Twitter rants or at cocktail parties?
但是为什么呢？发生了什么？我们哪里出错了么？甚至，我们是否错了？当我们在推特上
愤而发帖时，在我们在鸡尾酒会上谈论国是时，我们到底应该归咎于谁？
Well, there’s actually no one to blame. It’s just that the strategies and
beliefs that the country were founded upon have finally bumped up against
their limitations:
事实上，没有谁可以责怪。是我们这个国家所基于的策略和信念终于到达了其侷限之处：
No More Land. Fact is, we ran out of land around 1900. So we conquered Cuba
and the Philippines and like, Guam, and stuff. But after the World Wars
happened we realized something the English never did: that is, why spend all
of your time and money actually invading a poor country when you can just
lend them money and tell them to sell you stuff for really cheap?
1.再也没有更多的土地了。事实上，我们的土地在1900年左右就用尽了。所以我们征服了
古巴和菲律宾，以及其他地方，比如关岛。但两次世界大战后，我们意识到一件英国人从
来没有做过的事情：就是，当你可以借钱给一个贫穷的国家，然后让他们以非常便宜的价
格卖给你东西时，为什么要花时间和金钱去侵略他们呢？
That’s essentially what we did throughout the Cold War. We called it a
global hegemony, and it was basically like this low-level form of extortion
of the third world: either open up trade for us, let our corporations come in
and use your land and cheap labor, or get shut out and continue to wallow in
poverty.
这正是我们在整个冷战时期所做的。我们称其为全球霸权，基本上，这就像是对第三世界
的低级勒索：对我们开放贸易，让我们的公司进入你们国家去使用你们的土地和廉价劳动
力，否则你就会被排挤在外一直贫困下去。
And it worked. Dozens of markets around the globe opened up to us, and in
return, we promised that our military would protect them from communism.
这是有效的。全球数十个国家的市场向我们敞开了大门，作为回报，我们承诺，我们的军
队将保护他们免受共产主义的侵害。
But that too has dried up. Most of the poor economies have developed enough
that they aren’t so cheap and easy to exploit anymore. Or at least not as
much as they used to be. In fact, some of them may soon become our
competitors.
但即使这样，我们的资源也竭尽了。随着大多数贫穷的国家经济发展了，它们资源的价格
也随之上涨，我们再也不能轻易地使用它们的资源了，至少不像之前那样容易获得廉价的
资源。实际上，其中一些国家可能很快就会成为我们的竞争对手。
No More Cheap Labor. Yeah, that all got outsourced. I mean, why employ a
bunch of local laborers when you can build a factory in China and get the
stuff made for ¼ of the cost? RIP, Detroit. Oh, and there was this whole
thing called “slavery” you might have heard of. It ended.
2. 再也没有廉价劳动力了。是的，所有的工作都被外包了。我的意思是，当你可以在在
中国建厂并以1/4的成本生产商品时，为什么要在当地雇用工人呢？安息吧，底特律。哦
，你或许听说过所谓的“奴隶制”。它结束了。
Innovation is Now Creating Fewer Jobs, Not More. This may be the biggest and
scariest one of all. With the rise of information technology, automation, and
artificial intelligence, the fact is that we don’t need as many people as we
used to.10 You know when you walk into CVS and that computer screen yells at
you to put your shit in the bag and then you just swipe your card and walk
out? Yeah, the whole world is going to be like that soon. Accountants.
Pharmacists. Even taxi cabs and truck drivers. That’s potentially tens of
millions of people out of work. With no opportunity for those jobs to ever
come back.
3.创新所带来的工作机会正在减少，而不是增加。这可能是最严重和最可怕的事情之一。
随着信息技术，自动化和人工智能的兴起，我们需要的劳动力减少了。你知道么，当你走
进药店的时候，电脑会大声指示你，你把东西放进包里，然后刷卡付款，就可以离开了。
是的，很快全世界都会变成这样。会计师，药剂师，甚至出租车司机和卡车司机，都可能
失业，那可能有数千万人。这些工作再不会出现。
But this isn’t just going to hit the service sector. This is also largely
responsible for the manufacturing sector getting hosed. Despite what Trump
may yammer on about, US manufacturing output has doubled in the past 30 years
and is still the biggest sector in the US economy.11 The problem is that it’
s done that while only employing about 75% of the workers that it used to.12
That’s not the Chinese stealing those jobs. That’s improved technology. You
know, robots and shit.
受影响的不仅仅是服务行业。很大程度上，这也让制造业陷入困境。尽管特朗普可能会一
直抱怨，但美国制造业的产出在过去30年中翻了一番，并且仍然是美国最大的产业。问题
在于，在达成这样成就的同时，我们只用了过去所需人工的75%左右。并不是中国人把我
们的工作偷走了，而是技术的进步导致的。你知道的，机器人等等之类的。
In other words: the lemonade party is over. The customers have stopped
coming. The market is contracting. The easy money for anybody who wanted it
is now gone.
换句话说，柠檬水的狂欢结束了。顾客没有了，市场正在萎缩。钱再也没有那么好赚了。
In fact, it’s now the opposite: now there are millions of hardworking,
intelligent people who are living from paycheck-to-paycheck and are stuck in
jobs with few opportunities for advancement and little hope for the future.
And many of these people are pissed.
实际上，现在的情况已经完全反转了：现在有数以百万计聪明努力的人靠薪水勉强维持生
计，他们被工作困住，没有升职空间，也没有希望可言。许多人对此十分愤怒。
The sad truth is that fewer people today are getting ahead than before.
And they’re getting ahead not due to their hard work or their education as
much as their connections, their family’s socioeconomic status, and of
course, just the plain luck of not getting horribly sick or getting into a
serious accident.
可悲的是，如今成功的人比以前少。而且，成功者之所以能取得成功，并不是因为他们辛
勤劳作，也不是因为他们受过良好的教育，而是因为他们的人际关系，他们家庭的社会经
济地位，当然，甚至只是因为没有因为严重的疾病或者事故。
Not only is this not the American Dream, it’s the antithesis of the American
Dream. It’s the old feudal order where you’re born into your privilege (or
lack thereof) and forced to just hope things don’t get any worse.
这已经不是美国梦了，这是美国梦的对立面。这就是古老的封建制度，人们生来就有（或
没有）特权，他们只能希望不会活得更糟。
In fact, economic mobility is lower in the US than almost every other
developed country, and somewhere on par with Slovenia and Chile — not
exactly the gold standards of economic opportunity in the world (no offense
to my Slovenian and Chilean readers). And other Anglo countries such as
Australia and Canada have far more economic mobility, as well as those icky
socialist countries like Denmark, Sweden, and Finland.
实际上，美国经济的流动性几乎是所有发达国家里最低的，与斯洛文尼亚和智利的水平不
相上下——这并不是世界范围内衡量经济机会的黄金标准（我无意冒犯斯洛文尼亚和智利
的读者们）。而其他盎格鲁国家（如澳大利亚和加拿大）以及丹麦，瑞典和芬兰等邪恶的
社会主义国家的经济流动性要高得多。
“So the American Dream is dead. Big whoop? What’s your point, Manson?”
“那么美国梦已死了。哇！？你是什么意思呢，曼森？”
Well, I’ll tell you my point. It’s the last part of The Tragedy of the
Lemonade Stands that is so dangerous. See, the kids developed a belief system
around “success = hard work = deserving great things” and “failure =
laziness = deserving shitty things.” And those heuristics work great in a
society where there’s boundless opportunity, infinite resources, and
constantly expanding markets.
好吧，我告诉你我的观点。这是“柠檬水摊位的悲剧”的最后部分，这非常危险。我们看
到，孩子们围绕“成功=勤奋=获得成就”和“失败=懒惰=一无所获”的公式建立起一个信
念体系。在机会无限，资源无限且市场不断扩大的社会中，这些推论是很有效的 。
But when the tides turn, and those opportunities are simply no longer there,
well, these same beliefs become quite dangerous and even destructive.
但是，时移世易，当这些机会不再存在时，这样的信念就变得非常危险，甚至具有破坏性
。
The American Dream causes people to believe that people always get what they
deserve. The American Dream is essentially just another form of what
psychologists call “The Just World Hypothesis.”
1. 美国梦使人们相信他们得到的都是应当的。本质上，美国梦只是心理学里“正义世界
假说”的另一种形式。
The Just World Hypothesis says that people get what’s coming to them — bad
stuff happens to bad people and good stuff happens to good people. Bad stuff
rarely (if ever) happens to good people and vice-versa.
正义世界假说认为善有善报，恶有恶报——坏人总是遇到不幸，而好人则被好运眷顾。不
幸（如果有的话）几乎不会发生在好人身上，反之亦然。
There are a couple problems with the Just World Hypothesis though: a) it’s
wrong, and b) believing it kind of turns you into an unsympathetic asshole.
不过，正义世界假说有几个问题：a）它是错的，以及b）如果你信奉它，你就会变成为一
个无情的混蛋。
All of us get fucked at some point in our life in a very major way. Whether it
’s a car accident, cancer, being robbed at gunpoint, or developing a
crippling fear of peanut butter, we all get shit on in our own little special
snowflake way in life.
所有人都可能在生活中的某个重要时刻遭遇不幸。无论是交通事故，癌症，被持枪抢劫，
还是对花生酱心生恐惧，我们都有各自的不幸。
We all understand that on some level. But over 25% of Americans have no
savings. Zero. I know what you’re saying, “They shouldn’t have spent so
much money on flat screen TVs!” And maybe there’s something to that. But
the labor market is at an all-time low. Real wages have been stagnating for
50 years straight.18 The point is: the jobs just suck. The lemonade customers
have stopped coming, and that changes everything. Because it means people can
work just as hard as they did before (or even harder) and end up in a worse
place.
我们都在某种程度上理解这一点。但是超过25%的美国人没有储蓄。零储蓄。我知道你会
说什么：“他们不应该在平板电视上花那么多钱！”也许这是对的。但是劳动力市场处于
历史最低点，实际工资水平停滞了50多年。关键是：工作也糟糕。柠檬水顾客的流失改变
了一切。这意味着人们即使像以前一样努力（甚至更加努力），最终只会陷入更糟糕的境
地。
Here’s a stat that will knock your socks off: 45% of homeless people have a
job. You know that guy that sleeps on the bench in your favorite park and
smells like cat piss and when he asks you for a dollar, you scream, “Get a
fucking job!” at him? Yeah, chances are, he already has one. Asshole.
有个数据会让你大吃一惊：45%的无家可归者是有工作的。还记得那个睡在你最喜欢的公
园的长凳上臭不可闻的家伙向你乞讨时，你向他大喊：“去找份工作！”么？是的，很可
能他已经有一份工作了。
The American Dream causes us to believe that people are only worth what they
achieve. If everybody gets what they deserve, then we should treat people
based on what happens to them. Therefore, success makes you into some kind of
saint, a role model that everyone else should follow. Failure turns you into
a pariah, an example of what everyone else should try not to be.
2.美国梦使人们相信，我们应当按照他人的成就来对待他们。如果每个人得到的就是他们
应得的，那么我们应该根据他们的成就来对待他们。因此，成功者会被推崇为圣人，是所
有人都应该遵循的榜样。而失败者则会被唾弃，用于警示他人不要重蹈覆辙。
This creates an extremely shallow and superficial culture where people like
the Kardashians are celebrated for no other reason than they have fame and
money, and people like war veterans, 9/11 first responders, and life-changing
school teachers are more or less ignored and in some cases, left to die. The
unspoken assumption is that if they were so great, where the hell is their
money to take care of themselves?
这形成了一种极其肤浅的文化，在这种文化中，像卡戴珊姐妹这样的人只因有钱有名就备
受推崇，而退伍军人，9/11第一线急救人员和改变人们生活的老师这样的人则或多或少被
忽略，甚至对他们的死活不闻不问。而造成这种情况的原因，不言而喻，正是这样的假设
——如果他们真的这么伟大，他们怎么会没有钱照顾好自己？
It feels good to believe we all get what we deserve when the gravy train is
rolling and there are new jobs and industries sprouting up like hairs in a dog
’s ass crack. A rising tide raises all ships, as they say. And if our ship
is rising, it feels pretty good to assume that it’s because we’re a bunch
of big-balled badasses.
当新的工作和行业层出不穷蓬勃发展时，我们乐意去相信我们都得到了我们应得的。正如
俗话说的，只要涨潮，所有的船只都会水涨船高。并且只要我们的船升高了，我们会很乐
意相信那是因为我们自身的伟大。
But the truth is that people don’t always get what they deserve. Bad things
do happen to good people. We all screw up and make mistakes. Each of us
suffers from some vice or tick or failure. And that same belief that makes us
feel so good when times are great, is the same one that causes us to shame
and demonize ourselves when things aren’t so great.
但事实是，人们并不总是能得到他们应得的东西。好人也会碰上不幸。我们都搞砸过一些
事情，也都犯过错误。我们每个人也都有某种恶习，不足，或者失败之处。我们在情况大
好的时候会自我感觉良好，而正是这种情绪让我们在事情不那么好的时贬低甚至妖魔化自
己。
The American Dream indirectly encourages people to feel justified in
exploiting others. A couple years ago, a friend of mine was accused of a
serious crime that he did not commit. He hired a lawyer, went to court, and
was found not guilty.
3.美国梦间接地鼓励人们剥削他人。几年前，我的一个朋友被指控犯有严重罪行，但他并
没有犯罪。于是他聘请了律师，上庭后被宣告无罪。
About six months later he received a letter from a legal office threatening
to sue him for the exact same offense he was just found “not guilty” of in
criminal court. After consulting his lawyer, the lawyer said that this was
basically just a scare tactic, probably an automated letter, designed to
scare people into paying a settlement rather than going back to court again.
大约六个月后，他收到了一家律师事务所的律师函，扬言要对他提起诉讼，罪名正是之前
在刑事法庭已经被判“无罪”的那一个。我的朋友咨询了他的律师，律师告诉他，这只是
一种恐吓手段，那家律师事务所可能只是发一封自动信件，想要吓唬他，让他花钱解决麻
烦以避免再次上庭。
So think about this a second. There is a lawyer out there (or team of
lawyers), who go down to city hall and look through the registry of people
who have been acquitted of major crimes. These lawyers then, without even
knowing anything about the people involved, send a letter to the acquitted
person, threatening to sue them on the victim’s behalf, hoping that maybe,
one out of ten or one out of twenty will be scared enough to pay up some
money so that the lawyer will go away.
那么想想看，有一个律师（或一群律师）到市政厅查询那些被诉重大罪名而后被判无罪的
人的档案。这些律师甚至没有去了解任何当事人的情况，就写信威胁无罪的当事人，要以
受害者的名义起诉他们，希望也许十个人或者二十个人中能有一个为了息事宁人而花钱打
发律师。
This is pure exploitation. And the sick thing is, it’s perfectly legal. In
fact, the lawyers who do this probably make decent money and have nice cars
and live in nice neighborhoods and seem like nice fucking guys as they fetch
their newspaper and pet your dog and comment on the latest sports scores.
这是纯粹的剥削。可恶的是，这是完全合法的。实际上，做这些事的律师可能赚了很多的
钱，拥有漂亮的汽车，居住在漂亮的小区，当他们收取报纸，抚摸你的狗并讨论最新的体
育赛事时，看上去也像是好人。
But they’re total scumbags. Scumbags to the point where I’m getting angry
typing this right now.
但他们都是卑鄙的人。卑鄙到让我现在光打字都觉得十分愤怒。
But in a culture where your worth as a human being is tied with your level of
socioeconomic success, there will arise a kind of “might makes right”
principle — i.e., if I do something that gets money out of you, well, it’s
your fault for not knowing any better.
但是，在一个将人的价值与其社会经济层面的成功的水平联系在一起的文化中，会出现一
种“强者即正确”的原则——即，如果我做某件事，从你身上赚到了钱，那错误在于你，
因为你不知道更好的解决方案。
Now that the Tragedy of the Lemonade Stands has hit, and the opportunities
are drying up, and people are running harder just to stay in place, more and
more people are turning to skimming a little bit off the top from the next
guy over, to make it appear as though they are a success in which they’re
not.19 Whether it’s selling penis pills on the internet or creating bogus
websites that trick you into clicking on ads, or you’re a lawyer who tries
to scare recent defendants into giving you money not to sue them, it all
becomes not only more justifiable, but it becomes more necessary to maintain
the same cultural belief that hard work always wins out.
柠檬水摊位悲剧已经到来，机会越来越少，人们为了保持现状而更加努力，因此越来越多
的人开始从不如自己的人身上攫取利益，以显示自己的所谓成功，但其实他们根本不能被
称为成功。无论是在互联网上出售性药，还是创建欺骗性的网站来获得广告点击，或者是
作为律师用起诉吓唬被告人来牟利，这一切不仅变得合理，更成为了保持“勤奋总会成功
”的这一文化信念的必要条件。
Or as it was once said on The Wire: “You know what the trouble is, Bruce? We
used to make shit in this country—build shit. Now we just put our hand in
the next guy’s pocket.”
或正如美剧《火线》里的台词“布鲁斯，你知道问题在哪里吗？在这个国家里，我们曾经
是建造者。现在我们把手伸向别人的口袋。”
When you’re a kid, you believe everything is right in the world. You go to
school, you do what your parents say, you believe what people tell you, and
you assume everything is going to work out.
小时候，你会相信世界上一切存在都是正确的。你去学校，听父母的话，你相信别人，并
且认为一切都会好的。
But when you’re a teenager, you come to realize that a lot of this is
bullshit. By the time you reach adolescence, you are subjected to life’s
first traumas and failures. You recognize that the world isn’t fair. Things
go wrong sometimes. Bad things happen to good people and vice-versa. And in
many ways, you’re not as great as you had always thought or realized.
但当你逐渐长大，你会意识到其中很多都是胡扯。在青春期之前，你一定会遭受一次创伤
和失败。你会认识到世界并不公平。事情有时候并不会如你所愿。好人会遭遇不幸，反之
亦然。在许多方面，你都不像自己之前想像或认为的那么伟大。
Some teenagers handle this realization well and with maturity. They accept it
and cater themselves to it.
一些青少年成功并成熟地应对这个认知。他们接受了这个事实，并调整自己。
Other teenagers, particularly teenagers who are pampered and learn most of
what they know about the world through TV or internet, don’t handle it so
well. The world doesn’t conform to their small-minded belief system and
instead of blaming the belief system, they blame the world. And that blaming
doesn’t turn out well for anybody.
其他的青少年，尤其是那些被溺爱的，通过电视或互联网了解世界的青少年，则不能很好
地应对这一问题。真实的世界和他们狭隘的观念系统是不一样的。然而，他们不归咎于自
身的观念，而是指责世界。而这种指责对任何人都是不利的。
The US is a young country. Culturally, we are teenagers — just a couple
generations out of our golden years of innocence. And as a country, we are
coming to realize that our young idealism has its worldly limits. That we are
not exceptions. That things are not just. That we cannot fully control our
destiny.
美国是一个年轻的国家。从文化上讲，我们是青少年——在我们纯真的黄金岁月中也只是
几代人的时光。作为一个国家，我们逐渐意识到，我们年轻的理想主义有其世俗的极限。
我们并不例外。世界并不是正义的。我们无法完全控制自己的命运。
The question is how well we will adapt and mature to this new reality. Will
we accept it and modify our ethos to match the 21st century? Or will we
become petulant and angry and scapegoat our cognitive dissonance of our
national consciousness away?
问题是，我们将如何适应这一新的现实情况，并成熟起来。我们会接受这个事实，然后修
改我们的观念去适应21世纪吗？还是我们会愤怒，为我们民族意识的认知失调找替罪羊？
Perhaps the best thing about the United States is that we get to decide.
也许美国最好之处在于是我们能自己决定。