主题：哈佛大学经济学家对美国各个阶层的比喻 -- dolong

The crisis of middle-class America

( The great risk shift - endgame

also check http://theburningplatform.com/blog/2010/08/ )

“Harvard economist, Larry Katz, who offers the most compelling analogy. “Think of the American economy as a large apartment block,” says the softly spoken professor. “A century ago – even 30 years ago – it was the object of envy. But in the last generation its character has changed. The penthouses at the top keep getting larger and larger. The apartments in the middle are feeling more and more squeezed and the basement has flooded. To round it off, the elevator is no longer working. That broken elevator is what gets people down the most.””

美国就像一个大房子，最顶层（penthouse）变得越来越大，中间层感到压力越来越大，地下室已经被水淹没了（flooded）。而且，这个房子的电梯已经坏掉了，这个坏掉的电梯是最让人沮丧的。