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  3. Is 20th-century capitalism failing 21st-century society? Members of the global elite debated that unusual question at the annual

Is 20th-century capitalism failing 21st-century society? Members of the global elite debated that unusual question at the annual

admin2013-04-26  69
问题     Is 20th-century capitalism failing 21st-century society? Members of the global elite debated that unusual question at the annual World Economic Forum.
    It is encouraging that more than three years since the global financial crisis, a belated (迟到的) process of soul-searching has begun in search of the right lessons to learn from it.
    There is a great difference, however, between being willing to talk about an issue and being ready to act.
    It is a difference between those who still believe that all governments can do is get out of the way and those who believe there is a real role for governments in first reviving our economies, and then setting the right rules for future success.
    If we learned anything from the 1930s, it was that governments cannot shrug their shoulders and watch as their own people are being laid off.
    Nor should we forget the causes of the current growth and debt crisis as we seek to put our economies on a more sustainable footing.
    Both the United States and Britain suffered because their economies were overly reliant on the financial sector’s artificial profits; living standards for the many worsened while the economic rewards went to the top 1 percent; a capitalist model encouraged short-term decision-making oriented toward quarterly profits rather than long-term health; and interest groups like giant banks were deemed too big to fail or too powerful to challenge.
    We need to recognize that the trickle-down promise (benefits given to the rich will eventually be passed on to the poor) of conservative theorists has turned into a gravity-defying reality in which wealth has flowed upward disproportionately and, too often, undeservedly. To address the problem requires fresh thinking from governments about how people train for their working lives and what a living wage should be.
    Governments can set better - not necessarily more - rules to encourage productive businesses that make and sell real products and services. We need rules that discourage the predatory (掠夺的) behavior of those seeking the fast buck through hostile takeovers and asset-stripping that do not have the interests of the shareholders, the employees or the economy at heart.
    And governments must remember they are elected to serve the people, not the powerful lobbies who can pay for access or influence. Too often the real enemies of market capitalism are some of the leading beneficiaries of the current model, which favors big monopolies and consumer exploitation.
    I believe that changing the rules of capitalism will require a change in what citizens expect and ask of politics. The question is not so much whether 20th-century capitalism is failing 21st-century society but whether politics can rise to the challenge of changing a flawed economic model.
What does the author say about the so-called trickle-down promise?
选项 A、It defies conventional wisdom.
B、It has failed to materialize.
C、It will benefit both the rich and the poor once realized.
D、It will prove fatal to capitalist economy once broken.
答案B
解析 由题干的trickle-down promise可定位到第8段第1句，该句表明了该承诺没能实现。
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