你是“受擠壓的中產階級”嗎？

近兩年聽得最多的一句話是“什么都漲就工資不漲”。原先那么多錢能買的東西，現在都買不了了。受經濟危機影響的歐洲各國人民也是這樣的，他們都說自己是squeezed middle。

The squeezed middle refer to people on average incomes who have less money than previously to buy the things they need because rising costs have not been matched by an increase in pay.

The squeezed middle指收入一般的人群因為生活成本提高而收入未曾增加而變得手頭緊，原先能買的東西現在都沒錢買了，我們稱之為“受擠壓的中產階級”。

The term squeezed middle refers to those people who neither fall into the lowest income category, where they might get support from the welfare state, nor count among the country's top earners, for whom financial cutbacks have little personal impact. These people are therefore 'piggy in the middle', seeing their income eroded through tax changes and rising prices, and consequently, though not struggling to make basic ends meet, experiencing a significant decline in their standard of living.

Squeezed middle所指的人群既不屬于那些靠政府福利補助的低收入者，也不是金融危機也無法撼動的大富豪。他們是“中間階層”，他們的收入因為稅收改革和不斷上漲的物價而縮水，由此，雖不至于朝不保夕，但他們的生活水準已明顯下降。

The expression squeezed middle was launched into the public consciousness when it was used by UK Labour party leader Ed Miliband in a radio interview in 2011, and quickly caught on as something that a large proportion of the electorate felt they belonged to.

這個表達最先由英國工黨領袖艾德?米利班德在2011年一次廣播訪問中使用，之后便被很多人接受并認為自己屬于該人群。

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（中國日報網英語點津 Helen）

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