全球財富分配 仍然不均

Inequalities Persist in Global Distribution of Wealth

美國億萬富豪巴菲特等人大手筆捐善款，頗受稱道，然而有人批評這些富人累積財富的手法，害得數十億人落得一窮二白。巴菲特矢言捐出370億美元鉅款給蓋玆基金會，這筆錢比非洲大多數國家預計的今年度國內生產毛額還多。這筆捐款凸顯出過去10年來即便全球經濟產值倍增，財富分配仍日益不均。

While American billionaire Warren Buffett and others of his ilk are widely praised for their very generous philanthropic donations, critics nonetheless denounce the methods these very wealthy persons use to amass their great wealth, as they reduce millions of people to grinding poverty. Buffett has, in effect, pledged a donation of US$37 billion to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, a sum that exceeds the estimated GDP this year of many African countries. The size of the donation serves to emphasize the fact that while the value of global economic output has multiplied over the past 10 years, the distribution of wealth worldwide is increasingly disproportionate.

聯合國的2005年人力發展報告顯示，全球前50大富豪的收入總額，比全球最窮的4億1600萬人加起來還多。自由經濟成長並非財富不均惡化的唯一禍端。非洲各國政府貪污導致非洲近半數百姓活在貧窮線以下，拉丁美洲則在經濟改革20年後財富依然嚴重不均。

According to the 2005 UN Human Development Report, the combined income of the 50 most wealthy persons on the planet amounts to more than that of the poorest 416 million. Free-market economic growth is not the only affliction, however, that contributes to the worsening inequalities between the rich and the poor. Widespread corruption in African governments has also led to almost half the populations of the continent living beneath the poverty line, while in Latin America, 20 years of economic reforms have failed to redress serious wealth inequalities.

Production has increased more this month than in the past/last 10 years.

In 2001, production increased more rapidly than at any time in the previous 10 years.(由過去時間點起算)

He pledged to donate…/ He committed himself to donating…

They have been reduced to poverty.

personal values 個人價值    value產值(單數)

discretionary spending 自由裁量

… while reforms introduced 20 years ago

have failed to redress the inequalities

Our budget amounts to $5 million, of which a quarter will go to training