英国卫报:一万亿美元能治愈所有疾病吗?()

Cash injection: could we cure all disease with a trillion dollars?

资金注入：一万亿美元能治愈所有疾病吗？

Could such a large amount of money end the Covid pandemic? Eradicate¹ disease? Provide universal healthcare and fund vaccine² research?

这么多钱能结束新冠吗？能彻底根除疾病吗？能提供全民保健，资助疫苗研究吗？

by Rowan Hooper

作者：罗恩·奥佩尔

You know that daydream³ where you suddenly come into a vast fortune?

你知道那种突然有了一笔巨款的白日梦吧？

You could buy a castle or a tropical island hideaway, help out all your friends, do a bit of good in the world.

你可以买下一座城堡或者一座热带岛屿，帮助自己所有的朋友，为世界做点好事。

But what if it was a truly incredible sum? What if you had $1tn to spend, and a year to do it?

但是，如果真的有这么一笔巨款呢？如果给你1万亿美元，让你用一年的时间花掉它呢？

And what if the rules of the game were that you had to do it for the world – make some real difference to people's lives, or to the health of the planet, or to the advancement⁴ of science.

规则就是：你必须为了这个世界而花掉这笔钱，为人们的生活、地球的健康、科学的进步做一些真正的改变。

A trillion dollars – that's one thousand billion dollars – is at once an absurdly huge amount of money, and not that much in the scheme of things.

一兆美元(也就是一万亿美元)，咋一看真的是一笔超级巨款，但考虑要做的事情的话就不会觉得它很多了。

It is, give or take, 1% of world GDP. It's what the US spends every year and a half on the military.

这笔钱大概占世界GDP的1%，相当于美国一年半的军费开支。

It is an amount that can be quite easily rustled⁵ up through the smoke and mirrors of quantitative⁶ easing, which is officially the mass purchase of government bonds, but which looks suspiciously like the spontaneous creation of money.

通过量化宽松的骗局很容易就能搞到这笔钱，所谓“量化宽松”，官方说法就是大规模购买政府债券，不过看上去就像自发的增印钞票，让人怀疑。

After the 2008 financial crash, more than $4.5tn was quantitatively⁷ eased in the US alone. All the other major economies made their own money in this ghostly way.

2008年金融危机爆发后，仅美国就有逾4.5万亿美元的资金被量化宽松。所有其他的世界主要经济体都是通过这种鬼鬼祟祟的方式赚钱的。

And it is not just governments that have this kind of money.

并不是只有政府有这样的资金。

Two of the world's biggest companies, Microsoft and Amazon, are each worth more than $1tn; Apple stock is valued at $2tn.

全球最大的两家公司微软和亚马逊的市值均超过1万亿美元，苹果的股票价值高达2万亿美元。

The world's richest 1% together own a staggering $162tn. That's 45% of all global wealth.

世界上最富有的那1%的人的总财产达162万亿美元，这个数字十分惊人，等同于全球财富的45%。

At the start of 2020, private equity⁸ firms held $1.45tn in what they call "dry powder", and what the rest of us call "cash": piles of money sitting around awaiting investment. Just imagine what you could do with it.

2020年初，私人股本公司持有1.45万亿美元的“干粉”，以及我们其余人所称的“现金”：有成堆的闲置资金等待投资，想象一下你能用它来做什么。

Since the coronavirus hit, as after the 2008 crash, money has suddenly been found.

自新冠病毒爆发以来，就像2008年金融危机之后一样，钱突然被找到了。

Tens of trillions of dollars in economic stimulus⁹ packages are being chopped up, partitioned, allocated¹⁰, siphoned.

数万亿美元的经济刺激计划正被切割、分开、分配、转移。

What if we could spend that cash? If only we could divert some of it, scrape a bit here and there from governments and banks, or quantitatively ease $1tn into existence and spend it before anyone noticed.

如果我们可以花掉这笔钱呢？如果我们能够转移其中一部分，从政府和银行那里或多或少刮一点，或者量化宽松出1万亿美元并在被注意之前花掉呢？

Imagine the possibilities. Imagine what we could achieve.

想象一下这种可能性，想象一下我们能实现什么？

1 eradicate   

v.根除，消灭，杜绝

参考例句：

• These insects are very difficult to eradicate.这些昆虫很难根除。
• They are already battling to eradicate illnesses such as malaria and tetanus.他们已经在努力消灭疟疾、破伤风等疾病。

2 vaccine   

n.牛痘苗，疫苗；adj.牛痘的，疫苗的

参考例句：

• The polio vaccine has saved millions of lives.脊髓灰质炎疫苗挽救了数以百万计的生命。
• She takes a vaccine against influenza every fall.她每年秋季接种流感疫苗。

3 daydream   

v.做白日梦，幻想

参考例句：

• Boys and girls daydream about what they want to be.孩子们遐想着他们将来要干什么。
• He drifted off into another daydream.他飘飘然又做了一个白日梦。

4 advancement   

n.前进，促进，提升

参考例句：

• His new contribution to the advancement of physiology was well appreciated.他对生理学发展的新贡献获得高度赞赏。
• The aim of a university should be the advancement of learning.大学的目标应是促进学术。

5 rustled   

v.发出沙沙的声音( rustle的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• He rustled his papers. 他把试卷弄得沙沙地响。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Leaves rustled gently in the breeze. 树叶迎着微风沙沙作响。 来自《简明英汉词典》

6 quantitative   

adj.数量的，定量的

参考例句：

• He said it was only a quantitative difference.他说这仅仅是数量上的差别。
• We need to do some quantitative analysis of the drugs.我们对药物要进行定量分析。

7 quantitatively   

adv.数量上

参考例句：

• With the ease, radiation detectors can be used semi-quantitatively in the field. 使用射线探测器可以很方便地进行野外半定量测定。 来自辞典例句
• In other words, you are to analyze them quantitatively and qualitatively. 换句话说，你们要对它们进行量和质的分析。 来自辞典例句

8 equity   

n.公正，公平，（无固定利息的）股票

参考例句：

• They shared the work of the house with equity.他们公平地分担家务。
• To capture his equity,Murphy must either sell or refinance.要获得资产净值，墨菲必须出售或者重新融资。

9 stimulus   

n.刺激，刺激物，促进因素，引起兴奋的事物

参考例句：

• Regard each failure as a stimulus to further efforts.把每次失利看成对进一步努力的激励。
• Light is a stimulus to growth in plants.光是促进植物生长的一个因素。

10 allocated   

adj. 分配的 动词allocate的过去式和过去分词

参考例句：

• The Ford Foundation allocated millions of dollars for cancer research. 福特基金会拨款数百万美元用于癌症研究。
• More funds will now be allocated to charitable organizations. 现在会拨更多的资金给慈善组织。