Pamela Gordon sighs as she recalls how her parents came to Chicago in the 1950s from Mississippi, following the “Great Migration” of African-Americans to the industrial Midwest.

　　在追憶自己父母在上世紀50年代是如何從密西西比州遷到芝加哥時，帕梅拉·戈登(Pamela Gordon)嘆了口氣。在那場“大遷徙”中，大量非裔美國人遷移到美國中西部的工業(yè)地區(qū)。

　　“They were at the median, but coming from the south, they considered they were doing well,” she says. “My father worked at the National Can factory and my mother was a beautician. They had enough money to pay the mortgage, to afford a Cadillac, and they took us out once a week to eat and to go to the movies. They felt very middle class.”

　　“當時他們屬于中等收入家庭，但由于是在南方，他們自認為生活得不錯，”她說道。“我父親在國家罐頭廠(National Can)工作，母親是個美容師。他們的薪水足夠支付房貸和供一輛卡迪拉克(Cadillac)，每周還能帶全家出去吃一頓飯，看場電影。他們覺得自己是正宗的中產(chǎn)階級。”

　　Like her parents, Ms Gordon, 55, is at the median. Between her job as an administrative assistant at a dentist’s office in Rockford, a city of 150,000 some 90 miles north-west of Chicago, and her husband’s work at a call-centre, they make $52,000 a year – close to the annual median household income of about $50,000, according to the Census Bureau.

　　與其父母一樣，現(xiàn)年55歲的戈登女士也是中等收入。她在羅克福德(Rockford)市——該市位于芝加哥西北約90英里，人口約15萬——一家牙醫(yī)診所里做行政助理，丈夫在一家客戶服務(wù)中心工作，家庭年收入5.2萬美元，接近美國人口統(tǒng)計局(Census Bureau)公布的約5萬美元的美國家庭年均收入。

　　Asked if she considers herself middle class, however, Ms Gordon shakes her head. “I think middle class would be someone who doesn’t have to wait for payday to pay bills,” she says. “If I miss a pay check, I’m in trouble. Middle-class people could miss a few and they’d be fine. They have savings.”

　　但在被問到是否覺得自己是中產(chǎn)階級時，戈登搖了搖頭。“就我理解，中產(chǎn)階級不必指望薪水來支付賬單，”她說道。“如果有一個月沒有收入，我就有麻煩了。中產(chǎn)階級撐幾個月也不會有問題。他們有存款。”

　　Her story encapsulates what has happened at the midpoint of US household incomes, where wages have stagnated since the late 1970s and declined since the turn of the century. Both the relative quantity and quality of US median-income jobs has deteriorated, from postwar manufacturing jobs to the rise of low-paying employment in industries such as retail.

　　她的故事是美國中等收入家庭的縮影。自上世紀70年代末以來，這部分家庭的收入水平一直處于停滯狀態(tài)，進入21世紀后，甚至有所下降。從戰(zhàn)后的制造業(yè)工作到零售業(yè)等低收入行業(yè)工作的增多，美國中等收入工作的相對數(shù)量和質(zhì)量都有所下降。

　　Coupled with recession effects, that long-term secular decline has undermined the American dream. The housing crisis has left millions owing more than their homes are worth, while the distance between top earners and the median has grown, and the number of well-paying factory jobs has shrunk. Such factors imperil a recovery, reliant on the buying power of ordinary Americans.

　　收入長期持續(xù)下降，加上經(jīng)濟衰退的影響，已經(jīng)給美國夢蒙上了陰影。住房危機導(dǎo)致數(shù)百萬家庭的負債額超過了房產(chǎn)價值，而高收入與中等收入家庭之間的差距也有所加大，高待遇工廠的崗位數(shù)量也有所縮減。這些因素威脅到了依賴普通美國人購買力的經(jīng)濟復(fù)蘇。

　　“The home ownership aspect of the American dream has turned into a nightmare, while the idea that anyone can make it, or that your children will do better, seems an illusion for many Americans,” says Robert Reich, the former US labour secretary, now a professor at the University of California at Berkeley.

　　前美國勞工部長、現(xiàn)任加州大學(xué)伯克利分校(University of California at Berkeley)教授羅伯特?賴克(Robert Reich)表示：“美國夢中擁有住房這部分已變成了夢魘，而任何人都能實現(xiàn)美國夢、或你的子女會更成功的觀念，對于許多美國人而言似乎都是一種錯覺。”

　　Ms Gordon says her essential monthly expenses leave her with almost no disposable income. She bought her home in 2007, the height of the market, and it is almost certainly worth less than the $103,000 she owes on it. Her monthly mortgage payment, including property taxes, is $1,100. The interest rate is 7 per cent and she has been unable to refinance at a lower rate. Other expenses include a $500-a-month car loan, which she needs for driving to work, $600 in petrol and grocery bills.

　　戈登表示，每月的基本支出讓她幾乎沒有任何可支配收入。她是在2007年市場位于高點時買的房，目前房子價值幾乎肯定低于她欠的房貸——10.3萬美元。她每月還貸（包括房產(chǎn)稅）1100美元。貸款利率為7%，而她一直無法以更低的利率進行再融資。其它支出包括每月500美元的汽車貸款——她上班需要開車——以及600美元的汽油和食品費用。

　　Rockford, a former manufacturing city that used to have incomes far above the national average, is full of such stories. Kishwaukee Street, a main thoroughfare, is dotted with abandoned buildings that were once factories, petrol stations, car showrooms and bars.

　　在羅克福德，類似的家庭比比皆是。這里以前是一個制造業(yè)城市，收入遠高于全國平均水平。在主干道Kishwaukee大街上，隨處可見以前的工廠、加油站、汽車展廳和酒吧等廢棄建筑物。

　　Larry Morrissey, the mayor, says manufacturing jobs, once plentiful, are now aspirational. “The people in the middle would like to be in those jobs but they’re working in the service sector, at places like Walmart,” he says. “This is an overlooked and under-represented class.”

　　該市市長拉里·莫里西(Larry Morrissey)表示，以前充足的制造業(yè)工作機會眼下都成了奢望。“中等收入的人愿意從事這些工作，但現(xiàn)在他們都在服務(wù)業(yè)、例如沃爾瑪(Walmart)等企業(yè)工作，”他表示。“這是一個被忽視的弱勢階層。”

　　That has dragged down median wages, while the wealthiest have seen their earning power rise. At the same time, says Rachel Dwyer, a sociologist at Ohio State University, most job creation has been at the top and bottom of the scale, with fewer jobs in the middle.

　　這拉低了工資的平均水平，而最富裕人群的賺錢能力卻有所提升。同時，俄亥俄州立大學(xué)(Ohio State University)社會學(xué)家雷切爾·德懷爾(Rachel Dwyer)表示，大多數(shù)新創(chuàng)造的就業(yè)崗位都集中在最頂端和最底層，中間的職位較少。

　　This creates a demand problem, and not just for the US. The decline in median incomes has hit the American consumer, once the engine of the global economy. “A huge question mark hangs over the US and global economy because the ‘Energizer bunnies’ that drove them have run out,” says Prof Reich.

　　這就帶來了需求問題，而受沖擊的不只是美國。中間收入的下降沖擊了一度作為全球經(jīng)濟引擎的美國消費者。“一個巨大的問號懸在美國和世界經(jīng)濟上方，因為推動它們前進的‘勁量兔’（Energizer bunny，指勁量電池廣告中的兔子——譯者注）的電都耗光了，”賴克教授表示。

　　Dick Longworth of the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, a think-tank, is more categorical. “This is a consumer society and they’re the consumers,” he says. “If they don’t buy, we don’t survive.”

　　 智庫芝加哥全球事務(wù)委員會(Chicago Council on Global Affairs)的迪克?隆沃思(Dick Longworth)說得更加直接。“這是一個消費社會，而他們是消費者，”他表示。“如果他們不買東西，我們將無法生存。”