????你肯定聽說過：美國正逐漸變得越來越不平等。全美收入最高的5%群體控制著這個國家一半財富，收入最高的20%群體收獲了86%的資本收入，包括利息和股市收益。

????那么，我們應該怎樣做呢？許多經濟學家或許會保持沉默。但根據(jù)最新的經濟悲觀論，不采取行動最終將帶來駭人的后果，美國社會或將淪為一種新時代的封建制度。

????暢銷書《二十一世紀的資本》(Capital in the Twenty-First Century)的作者，時下風頭最勁的經濟學家托馬斯?皮克提提供了一個廣為人知的解決方案：全球收入再分配。在他的書中，皮克提支持一種嚴格的全球財富稅，這項稅種可以讓政府著手調整過度的貧富差距。不過，該計劃缺乏政治上的可行性。

????經濟學家約瑟夫?布拉西和合著者認為，他們已經找到了第三種答案。布拉西與理查德?弗里曼和道格拉斯?克魯斯共同撰寫了一本新書《公民的分享：減少21世紀的不平等現(xiàn)象》(The Citizen’s Share:Reducing Inequality in the 21st Century)，這本書去年已由耶魯大學出版社(Yale University Press)出版，今夏推出了平裝本。布拉西等人建議企業(yè)分享利潤，員工持股，以及股票期權計劃，這些措施能夠讓員工擁有企業(yè)大多數(shù)股權，或者分享企業(yè)收益。

????這些措施為什么能夠消除不平等現(xiàn)象？上周接受《財富》(Fortune)專訪時，布拉西詳細陳述了他的計劃。他說，這個想法的源頭是美國國父當初的一個理想：普通民眾廣泛持有土地所有權。建國初期，資本主要是由土地所有權構成，聯(lián)邦政府推出了一系列旨在讓普通民眾更容易獲得土地產權的計劃。喬治?華盛頓、托馬斯?杰斐遜、約翰?亞當斯和詹姆斯?麥迪遜認為，所有人都應該擁有自己的農場，并由此成為自食其力的公民。1862年的《宅地法》(Homestead Act)顯示，亞伯拉罕?林肯也支持這種理念。這項法律給予公民160英畝政府土地，讓他們自由開發(fā)。

????“為什么我們的計劃稱不上激進？”布拉西問道。“因為美國革命的領導者早就有了這種想法。這種廣泛分布的資本所有權，是共和國存在的必要條件之一。”

????You’ve heard it before: America is becoming gradually more and more unequal. The top 5% of the nation’s earners control half of its wealth, and the top 20% bring in 86% of capital income, including interest and stock market gains.

????What should be done about it? Plenty of economists would say nothing. But, if you believe the latest economic jeremiads, the eventual consequences of inaction could send society careening toward a horrifying form of new-age feudalism.

????Thomas Piketty, the author of the best-selling inequality opus Capital in the Twenty-First Century, offered a highly publicized solution: worldwide income redistribution. In his book, Piketty espouses a stringent global wealth tax that would allow the government to manually smooth over the wealth gap. Politically, the plan is a non-starter.

????Economist Joseph Blasi and co-authors think they have a third answer. Blasi, along with Richard Freeman and Douglas Kruse, wrote a book called The Citizen’s Share:Reducing Inequality in the 21st Century, published last year by Yale University Press and out in paperback this summer. In it, Blasichampions corporate profit-sharing, employee stock ownership, and stock option plans in which employees own chunks of the company or take part in earnings.

????Why would this stamp out inequality? Blasi sat down with Fortune last week to lay out the plan. The idea is rooted, he says, in the Founding Fathers’ original vision of widespread land ownership. In the country’s early days, capital mostly consisted of land holdings, and there were a host of government programs dedicated to making owning it more accessible. George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams and James Madison all believed men should have their own farms, and thereby be self-sustaining citizens. Abraham Lincoln, too, supported the idea with the Homestead Act of 1862, which granted citizens 160 acres of government land to cultivate.

????“Why isn’t our plan radical?” Blasi asks. “Because the founders of the American revolution had this view. That broad-based capital ownership was necessary for the republic to exist.”