There really are two Americas, but they are not captured by the standard class warfare speeches that dramatise the gulf between the rich and the poor. Of the new divisions, one is the gap between employed and unemployed that President Barack Obama seeks to close with yet another $50bn stimulus programme. Another is between workers in the private and public sectors. No guesses which are the more protected. A recent study by the Mayo Research Institute found that “private-sector workers were nearly three times more likely to be jobless than public-sector workers”.
美國的確存在兩個階層，但標準的階級鬥爭言論闡述得並不準確，它們誇大了富人與窮人的差距。在各種新的差距中，有一個是就業者和失業者之間的差距。美國總統巴拉克•歐巴馬(Barack Obama)正尋求再出臺一項500億美元刺激計劃，來彌合這一差距。另一種差距存在於民營與公共部門的僱員之間。哪個部門更有保障就不用猜了。梅奧研究所(Mayo Research Institute)近期完成的一項調查發現，「民營部門僱員失業的可能性比公共部門高出近3倍。」