原创： 我是小F FT每日英语 今天
FT专栏作家库柏表示，特朗普承诺要重振“美国梦”，但许多美国人想要的，却是高税收、低压力、相对平等的“北欧梦”。“北欧梦”真的会取代“美国梦”吗？
The northern European dream looks something like this: get home from work in time for dinner with the kids; no stress about paying for their education or healthcare; safe streets in a safe region; an affordable home near your extended family; frequent holidays and a long life. You won’t get rich, but you won’t need to either. This vision of the good life has rarely been articulated (except in Jeremy Rifkin’s 2004 book The European Dream) but it animates the region bounded by Iceland in the west, Germany in the east, and France in the south. Now the northern European dream is displacing the much better-known American dream — even, remarkably, inside the US itself.
“北欧梦”差不多是这样的：每天能按时下班，回家和孩子们一起吃晚饭；支付子女的教育或医疗费用毫无压力；所在地区很安全，街道上治安良好；住在一所负担得起的房子里，亲人们也住在附近；经常休假；长寿。你不会变得富有，但你也不需要。这幅美好生活构想很少有人说起（除了杰里米•里夫金(Jeremy Rifkin)在2004年出版的《欧洲梦》(The European Dream)中谈论过），但它给西到冰岛、东至德国、南到法国的这个地区带来勃勃生机。如今，“北欧梦”正在取代家喻户晓的“美国梦”，甚至在美国国内也有此趋势，这非同寻常。
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The American dream of “chewing gum, liberation and democracy” was imported into war-ruined Europe by occupying GIs, said German historian Paul Nolte at a debate organised by the Swiss newspaper NZZ in Berlin last week. Postwar, the core component of the dream became individual economic ascent, writes Sarah Churchwell in her new book Behold, America: anyone could make it if they wanted it enough (and read enough self-help books). I grew up in 1980s northern Europe imbibing this dream from soap operas such as Dallas and Dynasty, from the lives of celebrities such as Madonna and, above all, from adverts.
瑞士《新苏黎世报》(NZZ)最近在柏林组织了一个讨论会，德国历史学家保罗•诺尔特(Paul Nolte)在会上指出，“以嚼口香糖、追求自由和民主为代表”的美国梦是美国占领军带到因为战争而满目苍夷的欧洲的。莎拉•丘奇威尔(Sarah Churchwell)在她的新书《看啊，美国》(Behold, America)中写道，战后，美国梦的核心变成了个人在经济上的成功：只要梦想足够坚定（而且读过足够多的励志书籍），任何人都可以实现美国梦。上世纪80年代在北欧，我就是在美国梦的熏陶下长大的，它们无处不在，从《达拉斯》(Dallas)和《王朝》(Dynasty)这种肥皂剧，到麦当娜(Madonna)等名人的生活，而最重要的是广告。
① imbibe /ɪm'baɪb/ n. 吸液 v. 吸入；吸取
例句：These plants imbibe moisture through their roots. 这些植物通过根部吸收水分。
But that dream has faded. After Donald Trump descended the golden escalator in Trump Tower in 2015 to launch his presidential run, he intoned the new commonplace: “Sadly, the American dream is dead.” He himself is living proof of that: though he pretends to embody the dream, he is in fact an heir leading a society dominated by heirs, the predictable result of 80 years of national wealth accumulation and low to non-existent inheritance taxes. The US has less social mobility than northern Europe, according to Pew Charitable Trusts, the Brookings Institution and others. Being an average American now is like running a struggling small business: you’re always on the brink.
但美国梦已经暗淡无光。自从2015年唐纳德•特朗普(Donald Trump)走出特朗普大厦(Trump Tower)的金色电梯宣布参加总统竞选以后，他嘴上谈的那一套不过是新的老生常谈：“可悲的是美国梦已死。”他自己就是这句断言的活生生的例子：尽管他假装是美国梦的象征，但他实际上是一个继承者，领导着一个由继承者主宰的社会。长达80年的国民财富积累以及低到接近于零的遗产税造成这种结果是可以预料的。根据皮尤慈善信托基金会(Pew Charitable Trusts)、布鲁金斯学会(Brookings Institution)以及其他机构的数据，美国的社会流动性低于北欧。现在身为一个普通美国人就好像经营一家步履维艰的小企业：随时就可能撑不住了。
②brink /brɪŋk/ n.（峭壁的）边缘
例句：Because of this failure the village are at the brink of disappearance. 由于这种转变的失败，这些村庄正处于消失的边缘。
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True, the northern European dream has shortcomings. It tends to produce low growth and few innovative companies. For 200 years, Britain and then the US have invented the economic future, while continental Europe merely reacts, said French demographer Emmanuel Todd at the recent debate in Berlin. Europeans rely on American companies such as Facebook, Amazon and Uber to create their modernity, said Nolte.
确实，北欧梦存在缺陷。它往往会造成经济增速低下，创新性公司很少。法国人口学家埃马努埃尔•托德(Emmanuel Todd)在柏林讨论会上表示，200年来，英国、美国先后勾勒了经济未来图景，而欧洲大陆只是响应。诺尔特表示，欧洲人依赖Facebook、亚马逊(Amazon)和优步(Uber)等美国企业来缔造现代性。
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Yet these companies scarcely spread wealth to average Americans. Amazon, for instance, pays almost no federal tax, and wheedles out tax breaks from regions (including up to $3bn from New York for opening its second headquarters there). Europe looks better placed than the US to meet the next big governmental challenge: regulating and taxing Big Tech. Northern Europe’s high taxes probably discourage striving, but then less striving makes life more relaxing — and many northern Europeans take quiet pleasure in paying tax.
然而这些企业很少让普通美国人也财富均沾。例如，亚马逊几乎没缴纳什么联邦税，而且还从地方骗取税收优惠（包括因为要设立第二个总部将从纽约州获得最高30亿美元的税收优惠）。政府面临的下一个重大挑战是如何对大型科技公司进行监管和课税，在这方面欧洲的形势要好于美国。北欧的高税率或许会阻碍奋斗，但不那么打拼，生活会更轻松，而且很多北欧人在纳税这件事上很是怡然自得。
Their slow-growing region offers the best quality of life in human history, still decades ahead of China, India or Russia. Mockers will say that only the elite benefit but, in fact, northern Europe excels at sharing around its goodies: 22 of the world’s 23 most equal countries (as measured by their Gini coefficients) are European, according to the CIA. Eight of the 11 highest-ranked countries in the UN’s human development index are northern European. And the region does all this on less than half the US’s carbon emissions.
这个增长缓慢的地区造就了人类历史上最高质量的生活，比中国、印度或俄罗斯领先几十年。嘲笑者会说，受益的只有精英，但实际上，北欧擅长分享好处：根据美国中央情报局(CIA)的调查，在全球23个最平等的国家中（以基尼系数衡量），有22个位于欧洲。按照联合国(UN)的人类发展指数，排在最前面的11个国家中有8个在北欧。而且，该地区在人均碳排放量不到美国一半的情况下实现了这一切。
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Soon, the northern European dream will finally acquire its own propaganda machine. Many northern Europeans now have the linguistic skills to compete in the Anglophone global public sphere; witness Dutch internet newspaper De Correspondent’s plans to launch in the US. Within five years, at the click of an internet translation machine, any northern European website could be turned into decent English. Imagine the seductive power of the northern European dream once it can advertise itself alongside the American one.
很快，北欧梦将终于拥有自己的宣传机器。很多北欧人现在具备不错的语言技能，可以在通行英语的全球公共领域和其他地区的人竞争；看看荷兰新闻网站De Correspondent要在美国推出的计划吧。5年内，点击一台互联网翻译机器，任何北欧网站都有可能转换成地道的英文。一旦北欧梦能够与美国梦同台宣传自己，想象一下北欧梦的诱惑力吧。
词组拓展
take pleasure in
乐于；喜欢
例句：Mr Sorenson suspects that some consumers take pleasure in exploring the ridiculed. 索伦森教授猜测，有些消费者可能就喜欢对那些评价不好的事物去探个究竟。
例句：I take pleasure in introducing to you the bearer Mr. Li. 很高兴能向您介绍这封信的持有者李先生。