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讀紐時學英文
2020/08/28 第312期 訂閱/退訂看歷史報份
 
 
紐時周報精選 Europe Said It Was Pandemic-Ready. Pride Was Its Downfall 歐洲防疫失守 敗在自負
As the Pandemic Forced Layoffs, CEOs Gave Up Little 執行長因疫減薪 美國最大工會組織財務長:不過是做做樣子
紐時周報精選
 
Europe Said It Was Pandemic-Ready. Pride Was Its Downfall 歐洲防疫失守 敗在自負
文/David D. Kirkpatrick, Matt A
譯/陳韋廷 核稿/樂慧生

歐洲防疫失守 敗在自負

Professor Chris Whitty, Britain’s chief medical adviser, stood before an auditorium in a London museum two years ago cataloging deadly epidemics.

兩年前,英國首席醫療顧問惠提教授站在倫敦一座博物館的禮堂前,細數歷來各種致命的流行病。

From the Black Death of the 14th century to cholera in war-torn Yemen, it was a baleful history. But Whitty, who had spent most of his career fighting infectious diseases in Africa, was reassuring. Britain, he said, had a special protection.

從14世紀的黑死病,到受戰火蹂躪的葉門所爆發的霍亂,這是一段悲慘的歷史,然而職涯大部分時間都在非洲對抗傳染病的惠提說法讓人放心。他說,英國有特別的保護罩。

“Being rich,” he explained.

他解釋道:「就是富裕。」

Wealth “massively hardens a society against epidemics,” he argued, and quality of life — food, housing, water and health care — was more effective than any medicine at stopping the diseases that ravaged the developing world.

他認為,財富「大大增強了社會抵抗流行病的能力」,而生活品質如食物、住房、用水及醫療,就阻止肆虐於發展中國家的那些疾病而言,比任何藥物都更有效。

Whitty’s confidence was hardly unique. As recently as February, when European health ministers met in Brussels to discuss the coronavirus emerging in China, they commended their own health systems and promised to send aid to poor and developing countries.

惠提並非唯一一個如此具有自信的人。遠得姑且不說,就在今年二月,當歐洲各國衛生部長在布魯塞爾開會討論在中國出現的新冠病毒時,他們還稱讚自家公衛體系,並承諾向窮國和發展中國家提供援助。

“Responsibility is incumbent on us, not only for Italy and Europe, but also for the African continent,” said Roberto Speranza, Italy’s health minister.

義大利衛生部長史貝蘭沙說:「我們責無旁貸,不僅應對義大利和歐洲負責,對非洲大陸亦復如此。」

“The European Union should be ready for support,” agreed Maggie De Block, Belgium’s then health minister.

時任比利時衛生部長的迪卜洛克也表同意,他說:「歐盟應該準備好提供支援。」

Barely a month later, the continent was overwhelmed. Instead of merely providing aid to former colonies, Western Europe became an epicenter of the pandemic. Officials once boastful about their preparedness were frantically trying to secure protective gear and materials for tests, as death rates soared in Britain, France, Spain, Italy and Belgium.

僅僅一個月之後,歐洲大陸就無力招架了。西歐國家不僅未能一如所言向前殖民地提供援助,自身反倒成了這場全球大流行疫病的中心。英國、法國、西班牙、義大利及比利時的死亡率飆升,只見曾經自詡已準備就緒的官員們一陣手忙腳亂,想盡辦法取得防護裝備以及用於檢測的物資。

This was not supposed to happen. The expertise and resources of Western Europe were expected to provide the antidote to viral outbreaks flowing out of poorer regions. Many European leaders felt so secure after the last pandemic — the 2009 swine flu — that they scaled back stockpiles of equipment and faulted medical experts for overreacting.

這不該發生。西歐的專業知識與資源理應為較貧窮地區傳出的病毒疫情提供解藥。許多歐洲領導人在上次2009年豬流感大流行過後對安全防護過度自信,以致削減了裝備庫存,並指責醫療專家反應過度。

But that confidence would prove their undoing. Their pandemic plans were built on a litany of miscalculations and false assumptions. European leaders boasted of the superiority of their world-class health systems but had weakened them with a decade of cutbacks. When COVID-19 arrived, those systems were unable to test widely enough to see the peak coming — or to guarantee the safety of health care workers after it hit.

而事實證明這個信心就是失敗的開始。他們應付病疫大流行的計畫建立在一系列錯誤的計算及假設之上。歐洲領導人吹噓自家世界一流公衛體系的優越性,但十年來的節縮減卻削弱了這些系統。當新冠肺炎出現時,這些系統無力以廣泛的檢測預見高峰期的到來,也無法在疫情爆發後確保醫護人員的安全。

Accountability mechanisms proved toothless. Thousands of pages of national pandemic planning turned out to be little more than exercises in bureaucratic busy work. Officials in some countries barely consulted their plans; in other countries, leaders ignored warnings about how quickly a virus could spread.

問責機制證明形同虛設。厚達數千頁的國家應對全球大流行疾情計劃書,只淪為行政作業上的官樣文章。一些國家的官員幾乎沒有參照計畫行事,各國領導人也忽視病毒會快速傳播的警告。

European Union checks of each country’s readiness had become rituals of self-congratulation. Mathematical models used to predict pandemic spreads — and to shape government policy — fed a false sense of security.

歐盟對各國準備就緒程度的檢查已成為自鳴得意的儀式。用以預測疫情蔓延並制定政府政策的數學模型,則助長了虛假的安全感。

 
As the Pandemic Forced Layoffs, CEOs Gave Up Little 執行長因疫減薪 美國最大工會組織財務長:不過是做做樣子
文/Peter Eavis
譯/李京倫 核稿/樂慧生

執行長因疫減薪…做做樣子

When the pandemic prompted companies to furlough or lay off thousands of employees, some chief executives decided to show solidarity by forgoing some of their pay.

新冠肺炎疫情使企業界強制數以千計員工放無薪假或予以資遣之際,一些執行長也決定削減薪酬以共體時艱。

But it turns out that their sacrifice was minimal.

不過,事實證明,他們的犧牲只是九牛一毛。

A survey of some 3,000 public companies shows that the cuts — which, so far, have come in the form of salary reductions — were tiny compared with their total pay last year. Total pay includes things like bonuses and stock awards that typically make up the bulk of what corporate bosses take home.

一分針對約3000家美國上市公司的調查顯示,執行長削減薪酬的幅度與去年總薪酬相比,微不足道。到目前為止,削減薪酬皆採減薪的方式。薪酬還包括獎金和股票獎勵之類,這往往是執行長主要的實得收入。

Only a small percentage of the companies cut salaries for their senior executives at all, which is surprising given that the pandemic has crushed profits and sales for many companies, forcing large layoffs. But even among businesses that did cut the boss’s pay, two-thirds of the chief executives took reductions that were equivalent to only 10% or less of their 2019 compensation, according to an analysis by CGLytics, a compensation analysis firm.

只有小部分企業削減執行長的薪水,這在疫情導致許多公司營收和利潤劇減、被迫大裁員之際令人驚訝。不過,根據薪酬分析公司CGLytics的分析,就算在確實遭減薪的執行長中,多達三分之二削減的金額頂多只占2019年薪酬的10%。

Companies in this group include The Walt Disney Co., Delta Air Lines, United Airlines and Marriott International. All of those businesses have laid off or furloughed employees or pressed workers to take pay cuts.

削減執行長薪酬的公司包括迪士尼、達美航空、聯合航空與萬豪國際集團。這些公司不是資遣員工,就是放他們無薪假,或逼他們接受減薪。

This compensation analysis offers another example of how the coronavirus pandemic has walloped the working and middle classes while mostly sparing the people at the very top of the economic hierarchy.

這分薪酬分析資料再度展現,新冠肺炎疫情重創勞動和中產階級,卻大體放過了經濟體系頂層的人。

“These salary cuts were more window dressing than anything else,” said Liz Shuler, secretary-treasurer of the AFL-CIO.

The labor federation released a report showing that companies in the S&P 500 stock index last year paid chief executives on average 264 times as much as median employees, down from 287 times in 2018.

美國最大工會組織「美國勞工聯盟及工會組織」財務長麗茲.舒勒說:「這些人減薪不過是做做樣子。」該組織公布的報告顯示,名列標準普爾500指數的公司,去年給執行長的薪酬平均是中位數員工的264倍,比2018年的287倍下降。

Of course, this analysis is incomplete because the year is not over. In the coming months, corporate boards could decide to significantly reduce the bonuses and stock options they hand out to top executives for 2020. That would represent a big break from recent years when boards, which are primarily made up of corporate executives and investors, approved ever higher pay packages.

這個分析當然還不完整,因為今年還沒結束。未來數月,各家企業董事會可能決定,2020年大幅減少給執行長的獎金和股票選擇權,這將與近年來董事會的作法大相逕庭,主要由企業高層和投資人組成的董事會,最近幾年同意給執行長更高的薪酬不斷提高。

A few chief executives have already taken a sizable hit. The survey showed that Glenn Kelman, chief executive of Redfin, a Seattle-based real estate brokerage, took a pay cut that was equivalent to the $284,000 he got in 2019.

少數執行長薪酬已大減。這分調查顯示,總部設在西雅圖的房仲公司Redfin執行長凱爾曼,今年減薪28萬4000美元,相當於他去年薪酬總額。

“The reason we did it is because we had to furlough or lay off more than a thousand people,” Kelman said when asked what motivated the decision to withhold his salary. “It’s not just about the pay cut; it’s about the general sense that capitalism is not working for everyone.”

凱爾曼被問到減薪的理由時回答:「我們這樣做,是因為必須強迫一千多名員工放無薪假或將他們解雇。這件事不只關乎我個人減薪,更是為了照顧員工普遍感受,就是資本主義並非對每個人都適用。」

CGLytics surveyed the companies in the Russell 3000 index, which comprises most of the publicly traded businesses in the United States, and found that 419 companies had disclosed details of salary cuts.

CGLytics調查了涵蓋美國大多數上市公司的「羅素3000指數」公司,發現其中419家公布了減薪的詳細資訊。

 
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