让全球7大亿万富翁头疼的问题

收入失衡是个复杂的问题。美国是世界上最富裕的国家，但也是收入差距最大的国家。不过，好在美国的经济阶层有流动性，许多美国人的收入水平都会变化。安联保险指出，70%的美国人曾在至少一年时间里跻身于美国收入最高的那五分之一阶层中，收入挤进前十分之一至少一年的更达到人口的53%。

然而，随着贫富差距变得更为明显，全国都在热议如何减少收入不平衡、如何扶持中产阶层。由于广受关注，这个问题甚至把一些意想不到的人联系在了一起——民主党和共和党人士都很重视收入失衡现象，只是解决方案存在差异；哈佛商学院校友把收入差距作为重点关注对象，这有点像工会活跃分子，以及那些在快餐店外抗议示威的领取最低工资的雇员一样。

事实上，亿万富翁也不例外。企业家兼投资者尼克•哈诺尔曾因为一桩交易名声大噪，2007年，他成功地把自己的互联网广告公司以60亿美元的高价卖给了微软。不过，他最出名的还是曾向最富有的1%同伴发出警告：“如果我们不采取行动来缓和美国经济中已昭然若揭的收入不均现象，人们迟早会揭竿而起。如果收入差距仍然持续扩大，哪个社会都抗不了多久。”许多富豪跟哈诺尔看法一致。其中一些是从道德层面出发，另一些则表示更关注经济受到的冲击。

下面是七位亿万富翁表态，他们都很担心收入失衡会影响经济发展。

The U.S. is the richest and yet most unequal country in the world when you consider wealth. And yet, there is economic mobility; many Americans shift income brackets, with 70% of the population experiencing at least one year in the top 20th percentile of income and 53% landing in the top 10th percentile in at least one year, according to Allianz.

But as the disparities in wealth and income have become more marked, the national conversation over income inequality, as well as how to shore up America’s middle class, has gained urgency. It has even become a cause célèbre with surprising bedfellows. Democrats and Republicans have both focused on the topic, albeit with different solutions in mind. Harvard Business School alumni have cited it as a major concern — just like union activists and minimum wage workers at the fast food protests.

And billionaires are no exception. Entrepreneur and investor Nick Hanauer, who sold his Internet advertising company to Microsoft for $6 billion in 2007, most famously warned fellow one-percenters, “If we don’t do something to fix the glaring inequities in this economy, the pitchforks are going to come for us. No society can sustain this kind of rising inequality.” But he has plenty of company. Some are concerned on moral grounds; others cite the impact on the economy. Here are seven other billionaires who say they are worried about how income inequality will affect America.

Lloyd Blankfein

劳埃德•布兰克费恩

估算净资产：11亿美元

职位：高盛董事长兼首席执行官

言论：布兰克费恩在接受哥伦比亚广播公司采访时说：“在过去几十年里，太多的GDP增长成果被极少数人享受了。收入不平等是造成美国阶层分化的原因，而且差距可能变大。如果无权参与法律制定，就无法解决现实问题。如果无法解决现实问题，就无法推动经济增长，也不能推动美国走向成功。这个问题非常严重，必须解决。”

Lloyd Blankfein

Estimated net worth: $1.1 billion

Occupation: Goldman Sachs Chairman and CEO

What he said: “”Too much of the GDP over the last generation has gone to too few of the people,” he told CBS. “[Income inequality is] responsible for the divisions in the country. The divisions could get wider. If you can’t legislate, you can’t deal with problems. [If] you can’t deal with problems, you can’t drive growth and you can’t drive the success of the country. It’s a very big issue and something that has to be dealt with.”

Warren Buffett

沃伦•巴菲特

估算净资产：641亿美元

职位：伯克希尔-哈撒韦董事长兼首席执行官

言论：巴菲特对路透社表示：“随着经济变得分工更细……一个自然结果就是许多财富都流入了社会上层。当然，在市场经济中出现收入不平衡的现象是正常的，哪怕是非常不平衡。但在人均GDP超过5万美元的经济体中，真的不应该出现许多努力工作却依然贫困的现象。我的意思是，这很不合理，应该制定政策来改善现状。”

Warren Buffett

Estimated net worth: $64.1 billion

Occupation:Berkshire Hathaway Chairman and CEO

What he said: “As the economy gets more specialized … as a natural consequence, a lot of the wealth flows to the top. And, of course, you expect unequal results in a market economy, very unequal,” Buffett told Reuters. “But you really shouldn’t have an economy with over $50,000 in GDP per person and have lots of people living in poverty who are willing to work. I mean, that makes no sense and we need governmental policies to correct that.”

Bill Gates

比尔•盖茨

估算净资产：847亿美元

职位：微软联合创始人、前董事长兼首席执行官、盖茨基金会联合董事长

言论：盖茨在他的博客中写道：“收入分配高度不均是个问题。它扰乱了经济发展动力，导致民主倾向于为掌权者利益服务，削弱了人人生而平等的理念。资本主义制度是无法通过自行纠正实现更平等社会的，也就是说，如果不加控制，财富过度集中会产生滚雪球效应。”

Bill Gates

Estimated net worth:: $84.7 billion

Occupation: Microsoft Co-founder, former Chairman and CEO, now Gates Foundation Co-Chair

What he said: “High levels of inequality are a problem—messing up economic incentives, tilting democracies in favor of powerful interests, and undercutting the ideal that all people are created equal,” Gates wrote on his blog. “Capitalism does not self-correct toward greater equality—that is, excess wealth concentration can have a snowball effect if left unchecked.”

Jeff Greene

杰夫•格林

估算净资产：33亿美元

职位：房地产公司Florida Sunshine Investments创始人

言论：CNBC引述格林的话说：“全球性收入失衡和科技的迅猛发展造成了越来越多人失业，而且情况还在恶化。如果把国家负债再提高1万亿美元，重建地下管网、学校和医院，就能让人们看到希望。这些措施可以帮助美国重拾竞争力。”

Jeff Greene

Estimated net worth:: $3.3 billion

Occupation: Florida Sunshine Investments Founder

What he said: “The global equalization of wages and the exponential growth in technology has created a job-killing machine that’s only going to get worse,” CNBC quoted Greene as saying. “If we added an extra trillion to national debt, we could rebuild these underground pipes and schools and hospitals and give hope to people,” he said. “That would get the country through this difficult period. And it would help make the U.S. more competitive again.”

Carl Icahn

卡尔•伊坎

估算净资产：207亿美元

职位：Icahn Enterprises董事长

言论：雅虎财经报道，伊坎在一份政策报告中写道：“美国的工人也‘被骗’了。美国的厂房和设备已陈旧不堪，各大公司的董事和首席执行官却放任老化设备继续工作，工人的每小时生产率也因此降至历史最低水平，当然也低于去年。厂房和设备的平均使用时间达到了惊人的22.3年，这是1941年以来的最高纪录。但我觉得大多数董事和CEO并不关心。除了一些例外情况，CEO通常只看短期业绩。也许不能怪他们，因为很不幸华尔街的考核体系就是季度环比增长，CEO的高额薪酬就取决于这些短期业绩……到最后曲终人散，CEO早已拿着奖金逍遥离去，留下面对残局的仍然只是‘囊中如洗’的工人。”

Carl Icahn

Estimated net worth:: $20.7 billion

Occupation: Icahn Enterprises Chairman

What he said: “[T]he American worker is also getting ‘screwed,’” Icahn wrote in a policy paper quoted by Yahoo Finance. “[B]oards and CEOS have allowed property, plants and equipment of our companies to become the oldest on record and, as a result, the growth rate in productivity per hour of our workers has also become the worst on record and has actually decreased compared to last year. The average age of corporate property, plants and equipment is an astounding 22.3 years, the oldest it has reached since 1941. But I do not believe that most boards and CEOs really give a damn. With many exceptions, CEOs only care about short term results. Perhaps you can’t really blame them because unfortunately, Wall Street judges them based on quarter to quarter results and CEOs receive their egregious compensation based on those short-term results. … When it comes time to pay the Piper, CEOs will have taken their bonuses and again the workers will be left, holding the proverbially ’empty bag.'”

Paul Tudor Jones II

保罗•都铎•琼斯二世

估算净资产：47亿美元

职位：资产管理公司Tudor Investment Corporation创始人、联合董事长兼首席投资官

言论：琼斯在TED大会上说：“这张图显示了过去40年美国公司的利润占收入的百分比。从中可以看出，目前的数字为12.5%，是40年来的最高水平。如果你是股东，那就恭喜了；但如果你不是股东只是普通工人，你会发现这不是什么好事。当今利润率的提升并没有增加社会财富，实际上扩大了收入差距，这不是件好事。但直觉上似乎符合逻辑，对吧？算一下就清楚了，如果10%的美国家庭拥有90%的公司股票，公司利润的大部分就会流入他们的口袋，社会上其他人能获得的财富自然就会变少。”

Paul Tudor Jones II

Estimated net worth: $4.7 billion

Occupation: Tudor Investment Corporation Founder, Co-Chairman, and Chief Investment Officer

What he said: “This chart is corporate profit margins going back 40 years as a percentage of revenues, and you can see that we’re at a 40-year high of 12.5 percent. Now, hooray if you’re a shareholder, but if you’re the other side of that, and you’re the average American worker, then you can see it’s not such a good thing,” Jones said in a TED talk. “Now, higher profit margins do not increase societal wealth. What they actually do is they exacerbate income inequality, and that’s not a good thing. But intuitively, that makes sense, right? Because if the top 10 percent of American families own 90 percent of the stocks, as they take a greater share of corporate profits, then there’s less wealth left for the rest of society.”

Charles Koch

查尔斯•科赫

估算净资产：441亿美元

职位：科氏工业董事长兼首席执行官

言论：科赫在今年夏天的一次发言中说：“美国正在分化为双层社会——弱势群体致富机会破灭，富人们财富却在加速积累。政策已误入歧途，催生了一个无法脱贫的底层群体，结果是美国经济遭到严重削弱，企业界也日渐腐化堕落。”（财富中文网）

译者：Charlie

校对：夏林

Charles Koch

Estimated net worth: $44.1 billion

Occupation: Koch Industries Chairman and CEO

What he said: “We’re headed toward a two-tiered society — a society that’s destroying opportunities for the disadvantaged and creating welfare for the rich,” Koch said in a talk during the summer. “Misguided policies are creating a permanent underclass, crippling our economy and corrupting the business community.”