为什么支持特朗普？钱就是硬道理 - 纽约时报双语版

Anti-Trumpers like me see the presidential election as a reckoning for American democracy. For many Donald Trump supporters, it is a simple matter of dollars and cents.

像我这样的反特朗普者将总统选举视为美国民主的一次清算。对于特朗普的许多支持者来说，这是一个简单的金钱问题。

Late this summer, I left my home in New York City to talk to dozens of working-class people in the South, the Midwest and the West. I had no agenda except to hear what they were saying and try to understand the world from their point of view. I interviewed hairdressers and retired sawmill workers, bakers, truck drivers, laundromat managers, pit barbecue cooks, casino card dealers and even a former professional rodeo rider.

今年夏末，我离开在纽约的家，与南部、中西部和西部的数十名工薪阶层交谈。我没有任何议程，只想听听他们在说些什么，试着从他们的角度去理解世界。我采访了美发师、退休的锯木厂工人、面包师、卡车司机、自助洗衣店经理、露天烧烤厨师、赌场荷官，甚至还有一位前职业牛仔竞技骑手。

The most common term people used to describe the economy was “horrible.” A close second was, “It sucks.”

对于经济，人们说得最多的词是“可怕”。紧随其后的是“太糟糕了”。

I talked to men and women, white people, Black people, Latinos, Asians and Native Americans. They looked different, but they sounded the same. Everyone wanted better material conditions for themselves and their families, and everyone was struggling to obtain them. Some didn’t want to talk about politics. Others felt so ignored by politicians that they have disengaged from the process altogether. Everyone who offered an opinion was for Mr. Trump.

与我交谈的有男有女，有白人、黑人、拉丁裔、亚裔和原住民。他们的外表不同，但说的话都一样。每个人都想为自己和家人提供更好的物质条件，每个人都在努力获得这些条件。有些人不想谈论政治。还有一些人觉得自己被政客忽视了，以至于彻底不再参与这个过程。每个发表意见的人都支持特朗普。

If the nation is a body politic, then working people are the nerve endings that feel its economic spasms most acutely. While some of their reaction is the result of chronic, decades-long conditions, the most noticeable pains have presented themselves in the past few years. The worst inflation and the fastest rise in interest rates since the early 1980s — to well-off people, these are headlines. To working people, they are fundamental challenges to their daily lives. Working people worry much more about payday than they do Jan. 6.

如果这个国家是一个政治体，那么工薪阶层就是对经济痉挛最敏感的神经末梢。虽然他们的一些反应是长达数十年的慢性疾病的结果，但最明显的疼痛出现在过去几年里。最糟糕的通胀和自上世纪80年代初以来最快的利率上升——对富人来说，这些是新闻标题。对于劳动人民来说，这些是他们日常生活的根本挑战。工人们更关心发薪日，而不是1月6日。

Fair enough: But why turn to a lying, abusive billionaire to help them solve their economic problems? Their explanation is simple. Times were good when Trump was president. Now eggs cost nearly three times what they did four years ago, the rate on a car loan is more than 50 percent higher, and some companies are cutting hours. Mr. Trump, they think, is the candidate to turn things around.

这很公平，但为什么要求助于一个谎话连篇、滥用职权的亿万富翁来帮助他们解决经济问题呢？他们的解释很简单。特朗普担任总统时，大家的日子过得不错。现在，鸡蛋的价格几乎是四年前的三倍，汽车贷款的利率高出50%以上，一些公司正在削减工时。他们认为，特朗普是可以扭转局势的候选人。

In many ways, those sentiments are not surprising. Commentators from Alexis de Tocqueville to James Carville have noted the centrality of money in American life and politics. After all the rhetoric and all the angst, perhaps this election will turn out to be yet another proof of Mr. Carville’s maxim: When it comes to getting votes, it’s the economy, stupid.

从很多方面来看，这些情绪并不奇怪。从亚历克西斯·托克维尔到詹姆斯·卡维尔，评论人士都注意到了金钱在美国生活和政治中的中心地位。在所有的言论和焦虑之后，也许这次选举将再次证明卡维尔的格言：别傻了，选举拼的是经济。

SOUTH BEND, IND.

印第安纳州南本德

On his right arm, George Lemley has a welt from a burn he got from grabbing hot brass parts off the conveyor belt at his factory job. On his left, he has small, circular needle marks from trips to the local plasma bank, where he sells his bodily fluids twice a week to supplement his income.

乔治·莱姆利的右臂上有一道烫伤，是他在工厂工作时从传送带上抓起灼热的黄铜部件造成的。他的左臂上有许多小小的针孔，那是他去当地的血库献血留下的，他每周去两次来换取外快。

Mr. Lemley gets roughly $140 for two 90-minute sessions; in return, hospitals and pharmaceutical companies get important raw materials. George is 45, single, and his mother lives with him to save money. He began donating, he says, because “everything is outrageously expensive.”

莱姆利两次持续90分钟的献血过程可以换来140美元的收入；医院和制药公司则获得了重要的原材料。乔治今年45岁，单身，母亲为了省钱和他住在一起。他说，他开始献血是因为“所有东西都贵得离谱”。

Before his factory job, George worked at his local Kroger, so he is something of an expert on food prices. “I went there today for a pound of hamburger,” he says. “It used to be $2.50 at the most, now the cheapest is $4 when it’s on sale. Generic bread, you used to get it for 99 cents, now it’s $2. You might say that’s only two bucks, but it’s two bucks a week, that’s eight bucks a month.”

在这份工厂工作之前，乔治曾在当地的克罗格超市工作，因此他对食品价格颇有研究。“我今天去那里买了一磅汉堡包，”他说。“以前最高是两块五，现在打完折也要四块。普通面包以前只要99分，现在要卖两块。你可能会说，两块而已嘛，但一周两块，一个月下来就是八块。

As a teenager, George was “a huge fan” of Bill Clinton. But he voted for Mr. Trump in 2020 and this fall, he enthusiastically plans to do so again.

十几岁的时候，乔治是克林顿的“铁杆粉丝”。但2020年他把票投给了特朗普，今年秋天，他铁了心要再投给他。

“I don’t agree with everything Trump says, but I don’t care what he says,” George explains. “I care about his policies and what happens. The economy was great under Trump.”

“不是特朗普说什么我都同意，但我并不在乎他怎么说，”乔治解释说。“我在乎的是他的政策及其结果。在特朗普的领导下，经济非常好。”

On the south side of South Bend, far from the yellow brick buildings and emerald green lawns of the University of Notre Dame, Western Avenue is the usual collection of fast-food restaurants, liquor stores, MoneyGram outlets and dollar stores. Dollar stores are a wonderful window into the lives of working Americans, because nearly everyone who doesn’t have much money uses them.

西部大道位于南本德的南边，远离圣母大学的黄砖建筑和翠绿草坪，聚集了快餐店、酒类专卖店、速汇金网点和一元店。一元店是了解美国工薪阶层生活的一扇奇妙窗口，因为几乎所有经济拮据的人都会光顾一元店。

At one of those stores, Danielle Williams and a colleague are busy ringing up the register, helping customers find items and spelling each other when one goes on break.

在其中一家商店，丹妮尔·威廉姆斯和一位同事忙着收银，帮助顾客寻找商品，其中一人休息的时候要彼此照应。

“Where do you want me to start?” Ms. Williams says when I ask her about the economy. “The food, the gas — I just think it sucks.”

“你想让我从哪里开始说起？”当我问及经济状况时，威廉姆斯说道。“食物、汽油——我觉得太糟糕了"。

Ms. Williams is undecided whom to vote for. Reserved and soft-spoken on most issues, she is even more diffident when discussing this one. As a Black woman, she is astonished that she’s even considering Mr. Trump. But she felt much more economically secure from 2016 to 2020. “When Trump was president,” she says, “those were some of the best times we had.”

威廉姆斯尚未决定投票给谁。对于大多数问题，她都显得矜持，说话轻声细语，但在讨论这个问题时，她更加犹豫不绝。作为一名黑人女性，她对自己竟然在考虑特朗普感到惊讶。但2016年至2020年期间，她在经济上更有安全感。“当特朗普担任总统时，”她说，“那属于我们最好的时候了。”

THE DALLES, ORE.

俄勒冈州达尔斯

Liz Guzman, born to Mexican immigrants who came to California to pick grapes and oranges, started a baking business out of her kitchen last year. She sees how inflation puts pressure on her microcosm of the American economy. “When my costs go up, I have to be aggressive with prices to make sure I make a profit,” she said.

利兹·古兹曼的父母是墨西哥移民，他们来到加州采摘葡萄和橙子。去年，她从自家厨房起步，开了一家烘焙店。她看到通货膨胀如何给她身处的微观经济环境带来压力。“当我的成本上升时，我必须在定价上更狠，以确保我能盈利，”她说。

Interest rate increases have also affected her. To secure a bigger kitchen, she and her husband decided to buy a new house. This required them to trade a mortgage in the mid-2 percent range for one that runs 6.5 percent — “a big swallow,” she says. Now, every month she must pay $800 more in interest.

利率上调也对她产生了影响。为了获得更大的厨房，她和丈夫决定买一栋新房子。这就要求他们把利率在2%左右的抵押贷款换成利率在6.5%左右的抵押贷款，她说：“这是个很大的负担。”现在，她每个月必须多支付800美元的利息。

Ms. Guzman was thinking about renting a storefront where she could sell her cheesecakes and buñuelos, but now she and her husband think it’s too risky. “We’re staying afloat, put it that way,” Ms. Guzman says. “The situation is kind of OK, but the economy is definitely not OK.”

古兹曼曾考虑租一个店面，在那里出售芝士蛋糕和布奴耶罗，但现在她和丈夫认为这样做风险太大。“这么说吧，我们还能维持下去，”古兹曼说。“情况还算不错，但经济肯定不好。”

She remembers her parents speaking favorably of Bill and Hillary Clinton but she was apolitical until last year, when, at her husband’s urging, she registered to vote so they could each pull the lever for Mr. Trump.

她记得父母对比尔·克林顿和希拉里·克林顿的评价都不错，但她一直对政治不感兴趣，直到去年，在丈夫的敦促下，她才登记投票，这样他们就可以各为特朗普贡献一票了。

“We need to take action,” she recalls her husband saying, and she agrees. “The economy, the bills, the food costs, our taxes, the cost when you’re purchasing a car,” she said. “Something’s got to change.”

“我们要采取行动，”她回忆丈夫说，她也同意。“经济、账单、食品成本、我们的税、买车的成本，有些东西必须改变，”她说。

“I don’t like the guy personally, but I like him professionally,” she said of Mr. Trump. “He definitely has a finance brain on him.”

“我不喜欢这个人本身，但从职业的角度我喜欢他，”她在谈到特朗普时说。“他绝对有金融头脑。”

LUMBERTON, N.C.

北卡罗来纳州兰伯顿

On North Roberts Avenue, a woman entered one of Lumberton’s many pawn shops to make the monthly payment on her charm bracelet.

在北罗伯茨大道，一名女子走进兰伯顿众多典当行中的一家，为她的吊坠手镯支付月供。

The economics of a pawnshop transaction are as straightforward as those of a plasma bank. She hocked her jewelry for $200 in cash. In return, every month she must pay $44 in interest, handling and storage fees. That’s an effective 22 percent monthly rate and a 264 percent annual rate. If she misses any of her first three payments, she forfeits the bracelet.

典当行交易的经济原理和血浆银行一样简单明了。她把珠宝典当，换了200美元现金。作为回报，她每个月必须支付44美元的利息、处理费和仓储费。这相当于22%的月利率和264%的年利率。如果她错过了前三次付款中的任何一次，她就会失去这条手镯。

Because people pawn goods when they need money quickly, you might imagine the pawnshop business would be doing well. Austin Revels, the clerk, said the opposite is true. In hard times, more people pawn their belongings — but fewer people have money to come in and buy the goods others have forfeited.

因为人们在急需用钱的时候典当物品，所以你可能会觉得当铺生意很好。办事员奥斯汀·雷维尔斯表示，事实恰恰相反。在经济不景气的时候，更多的人典当自己的财产，但很少有人有钱买下别人绝当的物品。

“Everything is messed up completely,” said Mr. Revels, who’s in his late 20s. “The money people used to have to come into the pawnshop or the flea market, they don’t have. The little money people have after they get their gas and groceries, they don’t have that anymore. They see a leaf blower or a weed eater, normally they’d buy it. But not these days.”

“一切都彻底完蛋了，”快30岁的雷维尔斯说。“人们过去有钱去典当行或跳蚤市场买东西，现在他们已经没有这个钱了。人们买完汽油和杂货后剩下的那点钱，现在也剩不下了。以前他们看到吹叶机或除草机，通常就会买下来。但现在他们不买了。”

I don’t have to ask Mr. Revels whom he is supporting. He is wearing a Trump hat and a Trump wristband. A Glock pistol hangs from his belt.

我不用问雷维尔斯支持谁。他戴着特朗普的帽子和特朗普的腕带。他的腰带上挂着一支格洛克手枪。

A SLICE OF THE AMERICAN PIE

一块美国派

Some of what I saw can be explained by economic changes that have occurred over the past few decades. The American pie has grown, but for most of that time it’s been cut up in grossly disproportionate ways. Forget the recent economic turbulence: Over the past 45 years, working people have been sledgehammered as the nation moved from an industrial economy to a postindustrial one. On top comes price increases many voters haven’t experienced in their lifetimes.

我所看到的一些现象可以用过去几十年发生的经济变化来解释。美国派越来越大，但在大部分时间里，它以极不相称的方式被分配。抛开最近的经济动荡不谈：过去45年里，随着国家从工业经济转向后工业经济，劳动人民受到了沉重的打击。最重要的是，许多选民一生中从未经历过物价上涨。

Given this, can you blame our compatriots if they respond to a dark and often irrational candidate who promises to restore not only their incomes but also their pride? I can’t, not really. Artificial intelligence has not yet come for my white-collar job, nor those of most of my colleagues. But if it does, I wonder how bizarre our politics will be 40 years on.

考虑到这一点，当国人看到，一位阴暗、时常蛮不讲理的候选人承诺不仅要恢复他们的收入，还要恢复他们自豪感，他们觉得被说动了，你能责怪他们吗？我不能，真的不能。人工智能还没有取代我的白领工作，也没有取代我大多数同事的白领工作。但如果它真的来了，我不知道40年后我们的政治会变得多么怪异。

Adam Seessel曾是一名记者，现在是一名基金经理，也是《钱在哪里》一书的作者。

翻译：杜然、晋其角

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