六遥考试阅读考前的练习（2）　　2 You Call This a Good Economy 　　这能称之为上佳经验 　　1 You have to have lived in the 1950s and 1960s to have experienced a good economy.
In the period between 1950 and 1970 it was the rulerather than the exceptionthat an ordinary family, without higher education, could sustain itself decently on the income of a single breadwinner(养家糊口的人).
In 1955, when I was 19 and living in Brooklyn, N.
Y.
, my father, who had a sixth-grade education, maintained our family of five on a wage of $82 a week as a bookbinder.
My mother taught us fairness and compassion; my father, discipline and enterprise.
　　2 The U.
S.
economy in those years was good.
Then where did this good economy go?
It was inflated away.
The price of gold, which I take as proxy for the prices of all goods, was $35 an ounce in those years.
It is at roughly ten times that price today.
　　3 There is another answer, though: inflation caused the entire work force to be moved into higher tax groups, thus reducing after-tax purchasing power.
That is, my fathers bindery job in1954 paid $82 a week, with $80 after deductions; today, at $ 820 per week the net would be $662.
　　4 To ordinary people, the economy doesnt look very good at all.
After-tax incomes continue to decrease in purchasing power.
The jobs offered in the employment ads pay only a little more than the minimum wage, maybe $5 an hour, which, after payroll deductions, yields $4 an hour.
Compare that with minimum-wage jobs of the early 1950s, when 75 cents was worth todays $7.
50 before and after taxes.
　　Notes 　　1 Brooklyn: a district of New York city 　　2 inflate:通货膨胀 　　3 proxy: the authority to act for another 　　4 payroll: a list of employees and the wages due to each