三位经济自由主义捍卫者抨击资本主义

On a single day last month, capitalism as we know it took a triple blow from some unlikely sources.

在上月的某一天里，我们所认知的资本主义受到了令人意想不到的三位人士的抨击。

Mario Draghi, president of the European Central Bank, Christine Lagarde, managing director of the International Monetary Fund, and Donald Tusk, president of the European Council, all decried a system they claimed had neglected the security of its weakest members.

欧洲央行(ECB)行长马里奥.德拉吉(Mario Draghi)、国际货币基金组织(IMF)总裁克里斯蒂娜.拉加德(Christine Lagarde)以及欧洲理事会(European Council)主席唐纳德.图斯克(Donald Tusk)全都谴责资本主义制度，他们宣称资本主义忽视了最弱势的社会成员的安全。

That these three prominent champions of economic liberalism — all of whom work for institutions seen as part of an out-of-touch elite — are now critiquing capitalism is a reaction to the political mood of 2016.

这三位经济自由主义的杰出捍卫者——他们所工作的机构都被视为隶属于高高在上的精英阶层——如今正在批评资本主义，这是对2016年政治情绪所做出的反应。

This mood has led the UK to turn its back on the EU and to a broader rise of anti-globalisation political movements around the world — notably in the US, where Donald Trump has put protectionism at the heart of his presidential campaign.

这种情绪导致英国选择脱离欧盟，并使得反全球化政治运动在全球范围内更为广泛的兴起，特别是在美国，唐纳德.特朗普(Donald Trump)把保护主义作为其竞选的核心纲领。

For the first time since the fall of the Berlin Wall, the system Mr Draghi and his peers helped build is under threat.

自柏林墙倒塌以来，德拉吉及其同僚们帮助创建的制度首次面临威胁。

Those in power, and large swaths of the electorate, are fearful of what could follow.

那些当权派以及许多选民担心后续的发展。

The Corruption of Capitalism helps explain why we are where we are.

《资本主义的衰败》(The Corruption of Capitalism)帮助解释了我们为何会面临现在这种状况。

The author, Guy Standing, is a professor at the University of London’s School of Oriental and African Studies — an institution known for its opposition to the promotion of liberalism that has characterised mainstream economic thought.

作者是伦敦大学(University of London)东方与非洲研究学院(School of Oriental and African Studies)的教授盖伊.斯坦丁(Guy Standing)。该学院以反对宣扬自由主义——主流经济思想的特征——而闻名。

While the his perspective is leftwing, many of the author’s ideas for fixing he author has to fix the system — such as a universal basic income, where all citizens receive regular payments from the state whether or not they work — are receiving more attention from the mainstream.

尽管斯坦丁的观点有些左倾，但他提出的许多解决资本主义问题的想法——比如统一的基本收入，即所有公民接受政府发放的定期津贴，无论他们工作与否——越来越受到主流社会的关注。

The result is a timely book, which though flawed in parts isin others a compelling read.

这本书出得非常及时，尽管有些地方存在瑕疵，但仍令人手不释卷。

Standing explains how capitalism has been corrupted as the security of the many has been weakened to embolden strengthen the position of those who hold the bulk of society’s wealth.

斯坦丁解释了资本主义是如何被搞得衰败的，因为许多人的安全遭到削弱，却强化了那些拥有社会大量财富的人的地位。

Today, he explains, we have a rigged system that leaves those without much property with few rights.

他解释说，如今我们的体系受到操纵，使得那些没有多少财产的人也没什么权利。

He borrows from John Maynard Keynes’ critique of the rentier class — broadly, those who live on income from property, including patents and copyright, and investments.

他借用了约翰.梅纳德.凯恩斯(John Maynard Keynes)对食利阶层的批评——大体上这是指那些依靠财产（包括专利和著作权）及投资所产生的收益生活的人。

And like Keynes, he wants to see the euthanasia end of the rentier on the grounds that the system they have created is both inefficient and grossly unfair.

与凯恩斯一样，他希望看到食利阶层终结，原因是他们创建的体系既没有效率，又极其不公平。

Those at the bottom of the many he Standing calls the precariat — the class of workers most exposed to the insecurity produced bytypical of this era of rentier capitalism driven by globalisation, has produced.

斯坦丁将那些处于底层的人称为无保障无产阶级(precariat)，这是指在全球化造就的食利资本主义时代典型的最没有安全保障的劳动者。

The book is divided into chapters looking at the various ways in which the interests of the rentier class have been promoted to the detriment of the rest.

该书分为几个章节，分析了为促进食利阶层的利益而损害其他人利益的各种方式。

There are weaknesses in some of the arguments.

其中一些观点的理由并不充分。

For the author, the autonomy of central banks to set monetary policy as they see fit as they see fit highlights how little control normal most people have over the forces of finance.

在作者看来，央行可以按照自己认为合适的方式制定货币政策，这种自主权突显出大多数人对金融力量完全没有控制力。

Yet he neglects to mention that one of the reasons independence was granted was because is the fact that government control over interest rates had led to double-digit inflation across in advanced economies. The experience of rampant inflation in the 1970s and early 1980s.

然而，他没有提到赋予央行独立性的理由之一是，在上世纪70年代和80年代初，政府对利率的控制导致发达经济体的通胀率达到两位数。

Racing price rises — and the high interest rates needed to bring them under control — had the most vicious effect on society’s most vulnerable.

价格不断上涨——以及为控制通胀出台的高利率政策——对社会弱势群体的影响最为有害。

But on the gross unfairness of housing policy in the UK, one of the more egregious examples of the power of the rentier, Standing’s the arguments resonate.

但就英国住房政策的不公而言——这是表明食利者权力的更为恶劣的例子之一——斯坦丁的观点引发了共鸣。

It is on labour conditions in the era of dark Satanic apps, where data are used to monitor and control a workforce that has little in thewith little by way of employment rights, that Standing — a former employee of the International Labour Organization — the author is at his most prescient.

最能体现作者远见的是讲述邪恶应用时代的劳动条件的部分——在这个时代，资本家用数据来监督和控制劳动者，连保障就业权利的样子都不做。

Towards the end of the book, Standing, a former employee of the International Labour Organization, writes that the precariat’s vulnerability today is everyone’s tomorrow.

斯坦丁曾经在国际劳工组织(International Labour Organization)任职，他在该书结尾处写道，无保障无产阶级脆弱的今天就是所有人的明天。

On that he is surely right.

就这一点来说，他无疑是正确的。

As even those who helped create it acknowledge, the system as it stands cannot last.

就连帮助创建了资本主义的人也承认，这一制度照这样下去不可能长久。

While Mr Draghi and Ms Lagarde may feel uneasy about the crushing of the rentier class, At the AUTUMN’S International Monetary Fund’sMF’s October meeting all the talk was of a more inclusive system.

在IMF的10月会议上，大家都在谈论创建一种更具包容性的制度。

One hopes that some of what Standing writes is heeded and the system can be reformed in favour of the many before it is too late.

人们希望，斯坦丁在书中提出的一些观点会受到重视，以有利于众人的方式改革资本主义制度，以免悔之晚矣。

While a book such as this is perhaps not quite the right place to stress the benefits of capitalism, one only need to look at some of the political forces now on the rise to see that much worse systems could exist than that we now have.

尽管这样的书或许并不适合强调资本主义的益处，但人们只需看看现在崛起的一些政治力量就会发现，有些制度可能比我们当前实行的制度更为糟糕。