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💵How the Coronavirus Might Reduce Income Inequality
新冠疫情能減少收入不平等？
是禍？是福？
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💰Past pandemics have shifted the balance of bargaining power toward workers and away from owners, but it is far from certain that the new coronavirus will do that—and ultimately reduce the gap between poor and rich.
過往的大流行病往往讓議價的天秤往勞方傾斜，此次的新冠疫情能否帶來同樣效益並最終縮小貧富差距，此時仍言之過早。
-bargain 協議；討價還價
-ultimately 最後；終極地
🐀Economic historians have long thought that the Black Death, among other pandemics, had a significant impact on how income is shared between those who own land and other assets and those who provide the labor.
長期以來，經濟歷史學家都認為黑死病及其他流行病對地主、資本家們與勞動者之間的收入如何分配有著重大的影響。
-the Black Death 黑死病（14世紀蔓延歐亞兩洲的鼠疫）
-significant 有意義的；重大的；值得注意的
-asset 財產，資產
🦠The most direct and brutal way in which that impact is felt is a change in the supply of labor. Viruses and bacteria kill workers, who become less plentiful as a result. For those who survive, wages rise. At the same time, land and other assets are unscathed, and the returns to their owners decline. The result is a more equal distribution of incomes.
此影響很直截了當地反映在勞動力供給的變化上。病毒和細菌殺死了勞動者，於是勞動者人數變少。對倖存者而言，工資就會上漲。同時，土地和其他資產並未受到損害，但其所有者的收益下降。結果就是收入分配趨於更加平等。
-plentiful 豐富的，充足的
-unscathed 未受傷的；未受損失的
-distribution 分配；分布
💉But this time, governments around the world have taken unprecedented steps to halt the virus’s spread, shutting down large parts of the global economy to save lives. Those measures have limited the impact on the working-age population, as has the tendency of Covid-19 to kill older people who may have already retired while often sparing the lives of the working age or younger.
但這次，世界各國政府都採取了前所未有的措施來阻止病毒傳播，許多國家地區都以經濟停擺為代價來挽救生命。這些措施對勞動人口的影響有限，因新冠病毒的特性，往往是已退休長者的生命消逝，留下了較為年輕的勞工族群。
-unprecedented 史無前例的；空前的
-halt 暫停，停止；終止
-spare 節約；寬容，饒恕；不傷害
未完待續...
疫情真的能縮小貧富差距？
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❓❓Quiz: This time, governments around the world have taken ______ steps to ______ the virus’s spread, shutting down large parts of the global economy to save lives.
這次，世界各國政府都採取了前所未有的措施來阻止病毒傳播，許多國家地區都以經濟運作停擺為代價來挽救生命。💁🙋🏻🙋🏼♀️
A. massive / encourage
B. unprecedented / halt
C. tango / fasten
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