来源：《华盛顿邮报》
刊登日期：2021年5月27日
超纲词：fathom，indict，windfall
Belated happy birthday to Bob Dylan! It’s hard to fathom that the skinny kid from Minnesota who revolutionized popular culture back in the 1960s became an 80-year-old man on Monday. In addition to longevity, Mr. Dylan has been blessed with a personal fortune measured in the hundreds of millions of dollars. It’s a reward that is both well earned, given his artistry, and ironic, given his beginnings as a penniless poet of social protest.
迟来的鲍勃·迪伦生日快乐！很难想象，上世纪60年代，一个来自明尼苏达州的骨瘦如柴的年轻人在周一就已经80岁了，他彻底改变了流行文化。除了长寿，迪伦还拥有数亿美元的个人财富。考虑到他的艺术才华，这是理所当然的奖赏，但讽刺的是，他一开始是一个为社会抗议的穷光蛋诗人。
The unduly gentle taxation of some of Mr. Dylan’s winnings — and those of other wealthy veteran singer-songwriters — is no cause for celebration, however. In fact, it would make a pretty good subject for a present-day social change. Though not the most obvious loophole in the tax code, it does exemplify a key issue: the gap between the top tax rate on long-term capital gains, 23.8 percent, and the top rate on “ordinary” — wage and salary — income, 37 percent. This differential treatment overwhelmingly benefits the rich.
然而，对迪伦和其他富有的资深创作歌手的部分收入征税过于温和，并不值得庆祝。事实上，它可以成为当今社会变革的一个很好的主题。虽然这不是税法中最明显的漏洞，但它确实体现了一个关键问题：长期资本利得最高税率为23.8%，而“普通”工资收入最高税率为37%。这种差别待遇对富人极为有利。
Here’s the story: In 2006, music industry lobbyists persuaded Congress to let artists pay the capital gains tax rate on earnings from selling the rights to collections of their musical compositions, instead of the ordinary income rate, as they had done previously. The latter made more sense: Writing songs is labor, not investing, but the lobbyists said change was needed to equalize artists’ tax rates and those of their record companies. Congress considered the bill’s likely cost too small to estimate, and it passed.
故事是这样的：2006年，音乐行业的说客说服国会，允许艺术家们对出售其音乐作品的版权所得支付资本利得税，而不是像以前那样按普通收入税率纳税。后者更有意义：写歌是一种劳动，而不是投资，但游说者说，需要做出改变，使艺术家和他们的唱片公司的税率平等。国会认为该法案的代价小到可以忽略不计，因此通过了该法案。
Meanwhile, music catalogues soared in value due to the advent of streaming services, which pay top dollar to license hits. Last year, Mr. Dylan sold “Blowin’ in the Wind,” “The Times They Are a-Changin’ ” and some 600 other tunes to Universal Music Publishing Group for nearly $400 million. Neil Young, 75, has struck a deal for $150 million. In March, Paul Simon, 79, sold his music for an undisclosed, but presumably vast, sum. On amounts like these, the cost to the Treasury of reduced taxation can be huge indeed, certainly far greater than Congress anticipated in 2006.
与此同时，由于流媒体服务的出现，音乐作品的价值飙升。流媒体服务为热门歌曲的授权支付高额费用。去年，迪伦将《飘在风中》、《时代在变》等约600首歌曲以近4亿美元的价格卖给了环球音乐出版集团。75岁的尼尔·杨达成了1.5亿美元的交易。今年3月，79岁的保罗•西蒙以一笔未公开但想必数额巨大的价格出售了自己的音乐作品。在这样的数额上，财政部税收减少的代价确实巨大，肯定比国会2006年预期的要大得多。
Mr. Dylan and the other artists have done nothing illegal or unethical; all they have done is respond rationally to the incentives public policy creates. To be sure, it’s no incentive to create any new art; they are reaping a windfall on work created long ago. We mention their business dealings not to accuse them but to indict a system that favors capital gains.
迪伦和其他艺术家没有做任何违法或不道德的事；他们所做的只是对公共政策产生的激励做出理性回应。可以肯定的是，这并不是为创造任何新艺术而激励；迪伦等艺术家正在从很久以前创造的作品中获得意外之财。我们提到他们的商业交易不是为了指控他们，而是为了控诉一个有利于资本收益的制度。
Possibly singer-songwriters were motivated to sell before President Biden and the Democratic Congress could reduce the value of the capital gains, as they have promised to do. Democrats should keep the promise, for the sake of economic fairness and rationality. Come to think of it, those are the objectives people fought for in the ’60s, too.
拜登和民主党国会曾许诺，会降低资本收益的价值，这可能是创作型歌手近期出售版权的动机。为了经济的公平和合理，民主党人应该信守承诺。想想看，这也是60年代人们为之奋斗的目标。