评论
打印
In a Bertelsmann Foundation study on social justice released this fall, the United States came in deadly last among the rich countries, with only Greece, Chile, Mexico and Turkey faring worse.(1)____ Whether in poverty prevention, child poverty income inequality and health ratings, the United Stats ranked below countries like Spain and South Korea, not mention Japan, Germany or France.(2)____(3)____
It was another sign of how badly Americans are hurting their middle class. Wars, amine and violence have been devastated middle classes before, in Germany and Japan.(4)____ But when the smoke cleared and the dust settled, a social structure roughly similar to what existed before would always resurface.
No nation has ever lost an existing middle class, and the United States is in danger of that yet. But the percentage of national income holding by the top l percent of Americans went from about 10 percent in 1980 to 24 percent ill 2007, that is a worrisome signal.(5)____(6)____(7)____ so before the United States continues on its
current road of dismantling its version of the welfare state, of expanding the gap between rich and poor, Americans might do well glance south.(8)____ The lesson is that even after a large middle class emerges, yawning inequities between rich and poor severely strain any society's cohesion and harmony.
The United States has never had the type of robust welfare state that European built after World War Ⅱ.(9)____It didn’t need that. Through private initiative and efforts to equalize opportunity, Americans long ago ensured that a huge middle class would provide the social glue to hold his society together.(10)____
