To most thoughtful people, unemployment benefit embodies a painful trade-off. It's the mark of a civilised society, clubbing together to provide assistance to those in need. It is also, regrettably, an incentive to remain unemployed. At its worst, unemployment benefit pays people to watch daytime television; it is particularly pernicious if the skills of the jobless decay, and unemployment becomes unemployability. Yet, at its best, it is a life-saver.
对多数有识之士而言，失业救济体现了一种痛苦的权衡。它是文明社会的标志，大家携起手来为那些需要的人提供帮助。但令人遗憾的是，它也刺激了人们保持失业状态。在最坏的情况下，失业救济为那些大白天看电视的人提供了酬劳，尤其危险的是，如果失业者的技能退化，失业就变成了无就业能力。不过，在最好的情况下，它能够挽救失业者的生活。
In balancing these two effects, it's hardly surprising that different societies have adopted very different systems. According to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, member governments spent an average of 0.75 per cent of gross domestic product on unemployment benefits in 2006. France spent nearly twice this sum, and Germany almost three times as much, while the US spent a third of the average, and the UK just over a quarter. Germany spent more than 10 times as much as the UK, relative to GDP.
在平衡这两种效应时，不同的社会采取了截然不同的做法，这几乎不令人惊讶。根据经济合作与发展组织(OECD)的数据，2006年，各成员国政府用在失业 救济上的平均花费占国内生产总值(GDP)的0.75%。法国的比例几乎是这个数字的两倍，德国将近三倍，而美国是平均数字的三分之一，英国仅四分之一。德国失业救济金占GDP的比例，是英国的10倍以上。