W ith a quarter of a million people on the streets of London protesting against the UK budget cuts, and with the US government days away from a potential shutdown, social divisions over fiscal policy are deepening. It is not hard to see why. Both the US and UK have had a profound shift of income distribution from the poor and the middle-class to the rich in the past 30 years, yet the fiscal adjustments are dominated by sharp cuts on public services combined with reductions on corporate tax rates. The social contract is under threat. Only international co-operation can solve a runaway social crisis in many high-income countries.
25萬人走上倫敦街頭抗議英國的預算削減計劃，美國政府倒閉的危險迫在眉睫，由此可見，圍繞財政政策的社會分歧正在深化。原因不難看出。在過去30年裏，美英都經歷了從貧困人羣和中產階級向富裕階層的大規模收入分配轉移，而財政調整卻以大舉削減公共服務和降低企業稅爲主。社會契約正受到威脅。只有藉助國際合作，才能解決出現在許多高收入國家的難以控制的社會危機。