直到不久以前，美国、欧洲或日本不会有多少工人花时间考虑，为什么他们挣的工资是中国工人的10倍、20倍甚至30倍。是什么使得一个在美国工厂堆放箱子的工人，挣得数倍于越南或墨西哥工人的工资？

Until recently, few workers in America, Europe or Japan spent much time worrying about why they earned 10, 20 or even 30 times what a Chinese worker did. What was it that allowed, say, someone stacking boxes in a US factory to earn multiples of the wage earned by a Vietnamese or Mexican worker?

有人可能一厢情愿地想象，他们工作得更卖力，或者换句话说，墨西哥或中国工人懒惰或者缺乏技能。也有人更为接近真实情况，把他们的高工资和高生产率归功于国家的制度优势：司法和教育系统、基础设施以及技术。还有人或许在潜意识中干脆认为，他们的优质生活水平是上天赋予的权利俄语翻译。

Some may have fondly imagined that they worked harder or, put another way, that Mexican or Chinese workers were lazy or incompetent. Others, much closer to the mark, may have put their higher wages and productivity down to their country’s institutional advantages: its legal and education system, and its infrastructure and technology. Some, perhaps subconsciously, may simply have considered their superior living standards a god-given right.

情况再也不是这样了。随着新兴经济的数亿工人，尤其是亚洲工人，加入全球劳动大军，他们开启了逐渐拉平收入的缓慢进程。发展中国家正在提高教育、基础设施和技术水平，即便它们在司法和政治制度方面仍然落后。收入差距正在缩小。1990年，以购买力平价计算，中国人均GDP为800美元，而美国为23000美元，相差29倍。根据苏格兰皇家银行(Royal Bank of Scotland)的数据，去年这一差距缩小至6.2倍。预计到2015年将降至4.3倍深圳翻译公司。

Not any more. As hundreds of millions of workers in the emerging economies, especially within Asia, have entered the global workforce, they have begun the slow process of levelling the playing field. Developing countries are improving their standards of education, infrastructure and technology, even if their legal and political institutions still lag. Incomes are narrowing. In 1990, at purchasing power parity, gross domestic product per capita in China was $800 against $23,000 in the US, a differential of 29. By last year that had shrunk to 6.2, according to figures from Royal Bank of Scotland. By 2015 it is expected to narrow to 4.3.