亿万富翁税经不起现实检验【英语学习】

知春

The Billionaire Tax debate needs a reality check

关于亿万富翁税的争论需要进行现实检验。

By CA Post Editorial Board

CA Post 编辑委员会

Published April 27, 2026. ET

伯纳德·桑德斯（英语：Bernard Sanders，1941年9月8日—）现任佛蒙特州资深联邦参议员，自2007年起担任该职位。他是美国国会历史上任职时间最长的独立议员，但与民主党保持着密切联系，在其大部分国会生涯中都与众议院和参议院的民主党人一起参加党团会议，并于2016年和2020年寻求民主党总统候选人提名。桑德斯在意识形态上是一位民主社会主义者，被认为是现代美国进步运动的主要领导人之一。

The “billionaire tax” has qualified for the ballot, according to the union organizers who launched it. It may lose in November. It may be thrown out by the courts.

据发起这项“亿万富翁税”提案的工会组织者称，该提案已获得投票资格。但它可能在11月的大选中落败，也可能被法院驳回。

It is already hurting California.

这已经对加州造成了伤害 。

Almost as soon as the SEIU-United Healthcare Workers West launched its signature drive, many of the state’s billionaires moved out of California.

SEIU-United Healthcare Workers West 发起其标志性运动的同时，加州的许多亿万富翁就搬离了加州。

It wasn’t hard for them. Most already owned real estate in other states, or had business interests there — states like Texas and Florida (which manage to provide for residents without an income tax, let alone a seizure of wealth).

对他们来说这并不难。他们中的大多数人已经在其他州拥有房地产或商业利益 ——比如德克萨斯州和佛罗里达州（这两个州能够为居民提供不征收所得税的服务，更不用说没收财富了）。

Trillions in wealth left California. And billions of dollars in future income, which will no longer fill our state’s coffers, to be used (we are told) for essential public services, especially for the poor.

数万亿美元的财富流出了加州。 未来数十亿美元的收入也将不再流入加州的国库，而这些收入（据称）将用于必要的公共服务，特别是为穷人服务。

Here’s something many people don’t know. Billionaires are already taxed in California — highly.

很多人不知道的是，亿万富翁在加州已经要缴纳很高的税。

The top 1% of earners in California pay almost 50% of the income tax for the entire state — which depends on income taxes for its budget.

加州收入最高的 1% 的人群缴纳了全州近 50% 的所得税——而加州的预算依赖于所得税。

Bernie Sanders — who is not from California — likes to say billionaires should pay their “fair share.”

伯尼·桑德斯（他并非加州人）喜欢说亿万富翁应该缴纳他们“公平的份额”。

Well, if we were to charge billionaires their “fair share,” they’d get a massive tax cut.

如果我们向亿万富翁们收取“公平份额”的税款，他们实际上会获得巨额减税。

There’s a sinister side to the billionaire tax — a resentment of success and of wealth, which is entirely foreign to California.

亿万富翁税背后隐藏着险恶的一面——对成功和财富的怨恨，这在加利福尼亚州是完全陌生的。

Small wonder that the “billionaire tax” is not originally a local idea. It is imported from Europe, via UC Berkeley.

难怪“亿万富翁税”并非本地原创。它是从欧洲经由加州大学伯克利分校引进的。

Two economists in particular helped inspire it. One is Emmanuel Saez; the other is Gabriel Zucman.

两位经济学家对这项研究的开展起到了重要的启发作用。一位是伊曼纽尔·萨埃斯，另一位是加布里埃尔·祖克曼。

Both are originally from France — a nice place to visit, but not exactly a paragon of prosperity.

他们俩都来自法国——法国是个值得一游的好地方，但算不上繁荣昌盛的典范。

For decades, France had a version of the billionaire tax. Called the “solidarity tax,” it targeted a wider range of wealthy people — those with assets greater than 1.3 million Euros.

几十年来，法国一直实行一种类似于亿万富翁税的税收制度。这种税收被称为“团结税”，其目标人群更为广泛，即资产超过130万欧元的富人。

Wealthy people simply left the country — by the tens of thousands.

成千上万的富人纷纷离开这个国家。

In 2018, French President Emmanuel Macron repealed the tax.

2018年，法国总统埃马纽埃尔·马克龙废除了这项税收。

That hasn’t deterred the far-left — nor SEIU leader Dave Regan, who dragged California into a fight that many fellow union leaders quietly didn’t want.

但这并没有阻止极左翼势力——也没有阻止 SEIU 领导人戴夫·里根，他将加利福尼亚州拖入了一场许多其他工会领导人私下里并不希望发生的斗争。

Regan arrived from the post-industrial Rust Belt and apparently decided that what California needed was more of the misery that many once moved west to escape.

里根来自后工业时代的铁锈地带，他显然认为加州需要的是​​更多许多人当年西迁想要逃离的苦难。

The next step will be to tax the wealth of the middle class — and even that won’t be enough to pay for the ballooning cost of public health care.

下一步将是对中产阶级的财富征税——即便如此，也不足以支付不断膨胀的公共医疗保健成本。

Chasing away billionaires who invest and create jobs will make things even harder for middle-class Californians, more of whom will have to leave to find opportunities elsewhere.

驱逐那些投资和创造就业机会的亿万富翁，会让加州的中产阶级处境更加艰​​难，他们将不得不离开加州去其他地方寻找机会。

A smarter approach would do two things.

更明智的做法可以做到两件事。

First, we should look for ways to cut the costs of health care. That means fighting the lawyers and other entrenched special interests.

首先，我们应该想办法降低医疗成本。这意味着要与律师和其他根深蒂固的特殊利益集团作斗争。

Second, instead of taking away the wealth of billionaires, we should be trying to make more of them — and to keep them here.

其次，我们不应该剥夺亿万富翁的财富，而应该努力创造更多的亿万富翁——并让他们留在这里。

The more people know about the “billionaire tax,” the less they like it.

人们对“亿万富翁税”了解越多，就越不喜欢它。

Now is the time to lay the facts before the voters — before it is too late.

现在是时候把事实摆在选民面前了——趁现在还来得及。