That includes cars, houses, yachts, jewelry — and even cold, hard cash.

包含車子、房產、遊艇、寶石，甚至是現金。

It also includes things we owe other people, like student loans.

也包含我們欠別人的，像是學生貸款。

So let's take a quick tour of American household wealth.

我們來快速看一下美國家庭財富分配。

We can start over here, where we see people who owe way more than they have.

我們從這裡開始，這些人們積欠的比所擁有的還多得多。

As we move further right, we can see — oh, that's me.

當我們往右移，我們可以看到 ... 嘿我在這。

And there's my doctor, who owns an expensive home.

然後這是我的醫生，有很昂貴的房產。

And there's former heavyweight boxer Mike Tyson!

然後是前重量級拳擊手麥克．泰森。

But when we get to the very richest people in the world — oh hey, it's Beyoncé — we can zoom out so far that this chart looks like a stick and we still can't see the top of their wealth.

但當我們想看到世界上最最有錢的人 —— 噢！碧昂絲在這裡 —— 我們就要把圖表縮小很多，小到看起來像是一條直線，但還是看不到他們的財富終點。

Because these people are so much wealthier than the rest of us.

因為這些人比我們其他人都還要太太太有錢了。

In other words, this chart doesn't just show wealth.

換句話說，這張圖表不只顯示了財富。

It shows the staggering wealth inequality we have in America.

也展現了美國嚇人的貧富差距。

But recently, politicians have been talking about an idea that's never been done before in America.

但最近政府官員有個點子，是從沒在美國執行過的。

To even out wealth, we should tax it.

要降低貧富差距，就得從課稅開始。

In January, Senator Elizabeth Warren proposed something called a "wealth tax."

在一月時，參議院議員伊麗莎白．沃倫提議了「富人稅」。

This was a big deal.

這可是一件大事。

Because this doesn't typically get taxed.

因為累積的財富通常是不會被課稅的。

Most of the taxes we pay only happen when money changes hands — like when we earn money or spend money.

我們大多是在錢交手時才要繳稅，例如我們拿到薪資或花錢時。

But according to Warren, here's the problem with that.

但根據沃倫所言，這種形式有個問題。

This bar represents my wealth.

這一個柱子代表了我的財富。

And this is my friend's wealth.

而這是我朋友的財富。

I think he owns a yacht.

我想他一定有遊艇哦 ...。

But because both of us have the same job and earn the same amount of money, our income gets taxed about the same.

但因為我們兩人工作一樣，薪資也一樣，我們的收入被課到一樣多的稅。

"Two people who may have the same income, but are in wildly different economic circumstances."

「兩個人，或許收入一樣，但卻處於完全不同的經濟狀況。」

So to fix it, Warren wants to tax the actual wealth people have, but only for the very, very rich.

為了矯正這情況，沃倫想要向人們實際擁有的財富課稅，但只針對非常非常有錢的人。

Here's her proposal: All the wealth above this line — 50 million dollars — would be taxed at 2 percent each year.

以下是她的提議：所有高於這條線的財富 —— 5000 萬美金 —— 會在每年被課 2% 稅。

All the wealth above this line — 1 billion dollars — would be taxed at 3 percent.

而過了這條線的 —— 10 億美金 —— 則會被課稅 3%。

So if you have 40 million dollars, you'd pay nothing.

所以要是你有 4000 萬美金，你不會被課到富人稅。

If you have 60 million dollars, you'd pay nothing on your first 50 million, but 2% on the 10 million after that, or $200 thousand.

如果你有 6000 萬，你的頭 5000 萬不會被課稅，但後頭的 1000 萬就要被課 2%，也就是 200 萬。

And if you have 2 billion dollars, you'd pay about $49 million.

而若是你有 20 億，你就要付大概 4900 萬。

So what would happen if we imposed Senator Warren's tax?

所以要是我們採取沃倫議員的稅收方式，會發生什麼事？

Only the richest 0.05 percent of Americans would pay this tax.

只有最富的 0.05% 美國人會需要付這筆稅。

But in 2016, the government could have raised about 200 billion dollars from it.

而到了 2016 年，政府就能從中籌到 2000 億美金。

That could pay for a plan that makes public college tuition free — three times over.

那可以讓大學學費免費 —— 資金多出兩倍。

It could pay for all federal food assistance programs, like food stamps, two times over.

可以用來付所有聯邦食物扶助計劃，像是食物郵票，資金多出一倍。

It could get close to cutting child poverty by 60 percent.

可以減少 60% 的貧困兒童。

These are massive programs that would help millions of people.

這些都是能夠幫助數百萬人的大型計劃。

And what makes that possible is the huge amount of wealth stuck here, at the very, very top with the ultra-rich.

讓這一切有可能成真的，是累積在這裡的龐大財富，也就是超超超有錢的人們。

A wealth tax hones in on that.

富人稅正是針對了這點。

We've started this paid membership program called Vox Video Lab.

我們現在有個付費會員計劃，叫做 Vox 影片實驗室。

When you sign up, you support our journalism but you also get access to some really cool exclusive content.

當你註冊時，你就幫助了我們的媒體，同時也能得到一些很酷的獨家內容。

So you can join at vox.com/join. And thank you!

你可以到 vox.com/join 加入我們。謝謝收看！