富人停止了消費，這給經濟帶來了沉重打擊

富人停止了消費，這給經濟帶來了沉重打擊

The wealthiest American households are keeping a tight grip on their purse strings even as their lower income counterparts are spending a lot more freely when they emerge from weeks of lockdown. That decline in spending by the wealthy could limit the whole country's economic recovery.

最富有的美國家庭正在嚴格控制他們的錢袋，而低收入的美國家庭在經歷了數(shù)周的封鎖后，在支出上要自由得多。富人支出的下降可能會限制整個國家的經濟復蘇。

Researchers based at Harvard have been tracking spending patterns using credit card data. They found that people at the bottom of the income ladder are now spending nearly as much as they did before the coronavirus pandemic.

哈佛大學的研究人員一直在使用信用卡數(shù)據(jù)跟蹤消費模式。他們發(fā)現(xiàn)，處于收入階梯底層的人們現(xiàn)在的支出幾乎與冠狀病毒大流行前一樣多。

"When the stimulus checks went out, you see that spending by lower-income households went up a lot," said Nathan Hendren, a Harvard economist and co-founder of the Opportunity Insights research team.

哈佛大學經濟學家、Opportunity Insights研究團隊的聯(lián)合創(chuàng)始人內森·亨德倫說:“當刺激計劃發(fā)出支票時，你會看到低收入家庭的支出大幅增加。”

However, the wealthy are not matching them. "For higher-income individuals, that spending is still way far off from where it was prior to COVID and it has not recovered as much," Hendren said.

不過，富人并不符合他們的要求。“對于高收入的個人來說，這一支出仍遠未達到COVID之前的水平，而且還沒有恢復到原來的水平。” 亨德倫說。

That's potentially crippling because consumer spending is a huge driver of economic activity. In fact, so much of the country's economy depends on shopping by the top income bracket, that the lack of spending by 25% of the wealthiest Americans made up fully two-thirds of the total decline in spending since January.

這可能會造成嚴重后果，因為消費者支出是經濟活動的巨大推動力。事實上，美國經濟在很大程度上依賴于收入最高階層的購物，因此，自1月份以來，美國最富有階層中有25%的人沒有消費，這足足占了消費總額下降的三分之二。

The wealthy aren't holding back because they don't have the money. By and large, they have lost fewer jobs and aren't the ones who are worried about making rent.

有錢人不會因為沒有錢而退縮。總的來說，他們失去的工作更少，也不用擔心房租問題。

They have a lot of discretionary income and before the pandemic, were spending a significant chunk of that going to nice restaurants, the theater, or traveling and staying in nice hotels. Those are precisely the things that have been off limits since the coronavirus hit.

他們有很多可支配收入，在流行病之前，他們花了很大一部分錢去高檔餐廳，劇院，旅游和住高檔酒店。這些正是自冠狀病毒襲擊以來禁止做的事情。

That makes this very different from an ordinary recessiony. And those experiences are usually a lot more expensive than food and other essential items, which the rich and poor alike have continued to spend on.

這使得這與普通的經濟衰退截然不同。這些經歷通常要比食物和其他必需品貴得多，富人和窮人都在繼續(xù)消費(食物和其他必需品)。

Hendren and his colleagues found that businesses that deliver in-person services in wealthy neighborhoods have seen the biggest drop in sales and are struggling to recover, while a retail store or take-out restaurant in a poorer neighborhood might have seen some decline but they're starting to come back now.

亨德倫和他的同事發(fā)現(xiàn)，在富裕社區(qū)提供當面服務的企業(yè)銷售額下降幅度最大，目前正努力恢復。而在較貧窮社區(qū)的零售商店或外賣餐廳銷售額可能有所下降，但現(xiàn)在正開始回升。

Many of those jobs may not be coming back any time soon. The usual tools the government might use to fight a recession are not terribly helpful here.

許多這樣的工作崗位可能不會很快恢復。政府用來對抗經濟衰退的常用工具在這里并不是特別有用。