If, in the 1960s, you had tried to judge America by looking at the sit-ins and Woodstock, youwould have had a very distorted picture of where the country was heading. 在20世紀(jì)60年代，如果你曾試圖通過靜坐和伍德斯托克事件來判斷美國，你會(huì)有發(fā)現(xiàn)有一個(gè)非常扭曲的畫面。You wouldn’thave been able to predict that Richard Nixon would win the youth vote in 1972, which hedid. You wouldn’t have been able to predict that Republicans would go on to win four out ofthe next five presidential elections, a streak only interrupted by Jimmy Carter, who ran as aconservative Democrat.

Similarly, if you look only at the Tea Party and Occupy Wall Street movements that havebeen getting so much coverage in the news media, you know very little about the widerAmerica.同樣，如果你只在茶黨和“占領(lǐng)華爾街”運(yùn)動(dòng)，在新聞媒體能獲得這么多的報(bào)道來回答你的疑問，你就無法廣泛的了解美國。 Most Americans seem to understand this. According to data from the PewResearch Center, they are paying less attention to the Occupy Wall Street movement thanany other major story — less than Afghanistan, Amanda Knox, the 2012 election, the deathof Steve Jobs and far, far less than news about the economy.  http://ukthesis.org/jr/

While the cameras surround the flamboyant fringes, the rest of the country is on a differentmission. Quietly and untelegenically, Americans are trying to repair their economic values.雖然國家周圍是環(huán)繞華麗的色彩，其余的國家是上演不同的情景。靜靜地等待，美國人正試圖修復(fù)其原有的經(jīng)濟(jì)價(jià)值。

This project begins with the pessimism and anger you see in the protest movements.Seventy percent of Americans now say their country is in decline, according to various polls.When people are gloomy they have fewer babies, and, sure enough, fertility rates havedropped sharply, with the most dramatic plunges occurring in the hardest hit states,according to the National Center for Health Statistics.

But that doesn’t mean people are just shrinking back. Quietly but decisively, Americans aretrying to restore the moral norms that undergird our economic system.

The first norm is that you shouldn’t spend more than you take in. 第一準(zhǔn)則是，你不應(yīng)該花更多的時(shí)間在你采取英寸上。After an explosion of debtover the past few decades, Americans are now reacting strongly against the debt culture.According to the latest Allstate/National Journal Heartland Monitor poll, three-quarters ofAmericans said they’d be better off if they carried no debt whatsoever. Not long ago, mostpeople saw debt as a useful tool for consumption and enjoyment. Now they see it as aseduction and an obstacle.現(xiàn)在，他們看到它作為一個(gè)演繹和障礙物來表示。

By choice or necessity, eight million Americans have stopped using bank-issued creditcards, according to The National Journal. The average credit card balance has fallen 10percent this year from 2010. Banks, households and businesses are all reducing their debtlevels.#p#分頁標(biāo)題#e#

Second, Americans are trying to re-establish the link between effort and reward. This wasthe link that was severed on Wall Street, where so many made so much for work that servedno productive purpose. This was the link that was frayed by the bailouts, when people whobroke the rules still got rewarded.即使有人打破規(guī)則的同時(shí)，也仍然得到了回報(bào)。

In sphere after sphere, strong majorities want to see a balance between what you produceand what you get. The bank bailouts worked and barely cost the government anything, butthey are ferociously unpopular because the unjust got rewarded. The auto bailouts mostlyworked, but they are unpopular even in the Midwestern states that directly benefitedbecause those who failed in the market still got the gold. Public sector unions are unpopularbecause of the perception that benefit packages are out of balance.公共部門的工會(huì)是不受歡迎的，因?yàn)槿藗冋J(rèn)為福利待遇失去平衡。

The third norm is that loyalty matters. A few years ago there was a celebration of Free AgentNation. But now most people, even most young people, would rather work long-term for onecompany than move around in search of freedom and opportunity.

This values restoration is reshaping the way Americans see the world around them. Manyeconomists say the cutback in consumption will hurt the economy in the short run. But,according to the Heartland Monitor poll, 61 percent of Americans said the decline inconsumption would “help the economy as it would create more savings that could beinvested to create or expand business.”

Some economists say the government should be spending more now to stimulate a recovery.Thirty-eight percent of Americans seem to agree with that. But 56 percent have said“government spending when the government is already running a deficit is the wrongapproach during an economic downturn because it is only a temporary solution thatincreases long-term debt.”

These majorities are focused on the fundamentals. They say that repairing the economicmoral fabric is the essential national task right now. They are suspicious of governmentaction in general, saying that government often undermines this fabric. But they supportspecific federal policies that nurture industriousness, responsibility and delayedgratification, like spending on infrastructure, education and research. They distinguishbetween the deserving and undeserving rich.他們區(qū)分是不豐富的。

America went through a similar values restoration in the 1820s. Then, too, people sensedthat the country had grown soft and decadent. Then, too, Americans rebalanced. They did itquietly and in private.

然后，美國人重新達(dá)到平衡。他們這樣做純屬于個(gè)人名義。