【英语语言学习】世界财富分配有多么的不平衡

This is 'In the News' in VOA Special English.

 

More than half of the world's wealth belongs to just two percent of adults. A new study also found that fifty percent of adults own just one percent of all the wealth.

 

The report is from the World Institute for Development Economics¹ Research, part of the United Nations University in Helsinki, Finland. 

The institute says the study of personal wealth was the first of its kind to include all countries and all major parts of household wealth.

 

Researchers considered possessions, property -- all physical and financial assets². They also took debts into consideration. They used information from the year two thousand. And here is some of what they found:

 

Adults worth at least two thousand two hundred dollars were in the top half of world wealth.

 

The richest ten percent were those worth at least sixty-one thousand dollars.

 

And the richest one percent had wealth of at least five hundred thousand dollars. Thirty-seven million people were in that top one percent. More than half lived in the United States or Japan.

 

North America has only six percent of all adults but thirty-four percent of all household wealth. Together, people in North America, Europe and high-income countries in Asia and the Pacific hold almost ninety percent of world wealth.

 

The study found that wealth is more unequally spread than income. Countries where people earn a lot generally have a bigger share of world wealth than of the value of world economic production. The opposite is generally true for countries where income is lower.

 

The director of the institute, Anthony Shorrocks, offered a simple way to think of all these numbers. If the world had only ten people, he says, one person would have ninety-nine dollars. The other nine people would have to share one dollar.

 

An issue related³ to world wealth is remittances⁴. People who migrate⁵ to wealthier countries to find work commonly send part of their earnings⁶ to family members back home. These remittances are often an important part of the economy in the countries that receive them. In fact, remittances represent the largest amount of outside financing⁷ for many developing countries.

 

The World Bank recently reported the latest estimates⁸. Remittances are expected to reach one hundred ninety-nine thousand million dollars this year. This is a six percent increase from last year -- and more than twice the level in two thousand one.

 

In dollar terms, Latin⁹ American and Caribbean countries receive more money through remittances than other areas. But as a share of their economies, recorded remittances are highest in the Middle East and North Africa.

 

The United States is the largest source of remittances. But the World Bank notes that many developing countries that receive them also have large numbers of migrants in Europe.

 

IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English was written by Brianna Blake. You can learn more about development issues, and download MP3 files and program transcripts¹⁰, at voaspecialenglish.com. I'm Steve Ember.

1 economics   

n.经济学，经济情况

参考例句：

• He is studying economics,which subject is very important.他正在学习经济学，该学科是很重要的。
• One can't separate politics from economics.不能把政治与经济割裂开来。

2 assets   

n.财产；资产

参考例句：

• We capitalized our assets to avoid bankruptcy.我们把资产转作资金以避免破产。

3 related   

adj.有关系的，有关联的，叙述的，讲述的

参考例句：

• I am not related to him in any way.我和他无任何关系。
• We spent days going through all related reference material.我们花了好多天功夫查阅所有有关的参考资料。

4 remittances   

n.汇寄( remittance的名词复数 )；汇款，汇款额

参考例句：

• He sends regular remittances to his parents. 他定期汇款给他父母。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Remittances sometimes account for as much as 20% of GDP. 在这些国家中，此类汇款有时会占到GDP的20%之多。 来自互联网

5 migrate   

vi.（候鸟等）迁徙，移居（国外），迁移

参考例句：

• Many birds migrate south for the winter.冬天时，许多鸟类迁徙南方。
• The rich people often migrate in winter to Florida.有钱的人常在冬季搬迁到佛罗里达州去。

6 earnings   

n.工资收人；利润，利益，所得

参考例句：

• That old man lives on the earnings of his daughter.那个老人靠他女儿的收入维持生活。
• Last year there was a 20% decrease in his earnings.去年他的收入减少了20%。

7 financing   

n.筹措资金

参考例句：

• The main source of our outside financing is bank loan. 我们向外筹措资金的主要渠道是银行贷款。
• They live in a symbiosis with governments that they are financing. 他们与他们服务的政府互利共存。

8 estimates   

估计

参考例句：

• Unofficial estimates put the figure at over two million. 非官方的估计数字为200万以上。
• We got estimates from three different contractors before accepting the lowest. 我们得到3个承包商的报价后，接受了最低的报价。 来自《简明英汉词典》

9 Latin   

adj.拉丁的，拉丁语的，拉丁人的；n.拉丁语

参考例句：

• She learned Latin without a master.她无师自通学会了拉丁语。
• Please use only Latin characters.请仅使用拉丁文字符。

10 transcripts   

n.抄本（ transcript的名词复数 ）；转写本；文字本；副本

参考例句：

• Like mRNA, both tRNA and rRNA are transcripts of chromosomal DNA. tRNA及rRNA同mRNA一样，都是染色体DNA的转录产物。 来自辞典例句
• You can't take the transfer students'exam without your transcripts. 没有成绩证明书，你就不能参加转学考试。 来自辞典例句