每日英語跟讀 Ep.K422: Wealthy Friends May Be Ticket Out of Poverty

Over the last four decades, the financial circumstances into which children have been born have increasingly determined where they have ended up as adults. But an expansive new study, based on billions of social media connections, has uncovered a powerful exception to that pattern that helps explain why certain places offer a path out of poverty.

過去40年，小孩出生時的經濟環境，對他們成年後的結局日益具有決定性，但一項基於數十億社群媒體聯繫的廣泛新研究，發現了這種模式的一個強大例外，這有助於解釋為什麼某些地方提供擺脫貧困的途徑。

For poor children, living in an area where people have more friendships that cut across class lines significantly increases how much they earn in adulthood, the new research found.

新的研究發現，對貧困兒童來說，生活在一個較能跨越階級界線交朋友的地區，會大大增加他們成年後的收入。

The study, published in Nature, analyzed the Facebook friendships of 72 million people, amounting to 84% of U.S. adults ages 25 to 44.

這項發表在《自然》雜誌上的研究，分析7,200萬人在臉書上的交友情形，這一數字占全美25至44歲成人的84%。

The new analysis — the biggest of its kind — found the degree to which the rich and poor were connected explained why a neighborhood’s children did better later in life, more than any other factor.

這項同類研究中規模最大的新分析發現，富人與窮人的聯繫程度，解釋了為何一個社區的小孩日後生活過得較好，影響超過其他任何因素。

The effect was profound. The study found that if poor children grew up in neighborhoods where 70% of their friends were wealthy — the typical rate for higher-income children — it would increase their future incomes by 20%, on average.

這種影響是深遠的。研究發現，若貧困兒童成長於70%朋友是富人的社區中－這是高收入兒童典型的比率－他們未來收入平均會增加20%。

These cross-class friendships — what the researchers called economic connectedness — had a stronger impact than school quality, family structure, job availability or a community’s racial composition. The people you know, the study suggests, open up opportunities, and the growing class divide in the United States closes them off.

這些跨階級的友誼被研究人員稱為經濟關聯性，比學校素質、家庭結構、就業機會或社區種族構成影響更大。研究顯示，你認識的人開創了機會，而美國日益擴大的階級鴻溝卻將其關閉。

“Growing up in a community connected across class lines improves kids’ outcomes and gives them a better shot at rising out of poverty,” said Raj Chetty, an economist at Harvard University and the director of Opportunity Insights, which studies the roots of inequality and the contributors to economic mobility. He was one of the study’s four principal authors.

哈佛大學研究機構「機會洞察」主任、經濟學家切堤說：「在一個跨越階級界線的社區中長大，會改善小孩的結局，他們擺脫貧窮的機會更大。」該機構研究不平等根源及經濟流動性的成因。他是上述研究四位主要作者之一。

Jimarielle Bowie grew up in a lower-middle-class family. Her parents divorced, lost jobs and lost homes. So when she made friends in high school with girls who lived on the rich side of town, their lifestyles intrigued her. Their houses were bigger; they ate different foods; and their parents — doctors, lawyers and pastors — had different goals and plans for their children, including applying for college.

吉馬里爾．鮑伊在一個中下階級家庭中成長。她的父母離異，失業且失去住處。因此，當她在高中結識了一些住在城市富人區的女孩時，她們的生活方式引起她的興趣。她們住在更大的房子，吃不同的食物，她們的父母是醫生、律師和牧師，對孩子有不同的目標和計畫，包括申請大學。

Bowie became the first person in her family to get a postgraduate degree. She’s now a criminal defense lawyer — a job she found through a friend of one of those high school friends.

鮑伊成為家中第一個獲得碩士學位的人。她現在是個刑事辯護律師，這是她透過一個高中朋友的朋友找到的工作。

“My experience meeting people who were more affluent, I got to get in those circles, understand how those people think,” she said. “I absolutely think it made a significant difference.”

她說：「我跟較富有的人接觸的經歷，讓我進入那些圈子，了解他們的想法。我絕對認為這產生了重大影響。」Source article: https://udn.com/news/story/6904/6533747

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