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All of which creates a challenge of measurement.
所有這些都帶來了階級衡量的挑戰。
If sizing up the middle class is difficult enough, it's that much harder to say that circumstances within this group have changed.
如果說估量中產階級就已經夠困難了，那么要想說這個群體的內部情況已經發生了變化，則就更為困難了。
And yet that is precisely what we've devoted the 28 pages in this special report to saying—and showing.
然而，這正是我們在這篇28頁的特別報道中所要表達和展示的。
Life has gotten harder in recent years for millions of people within the middle class.
近年來，數百萬中產階級的生活變得越來越艱難。
Put simply: For too many, the American dream has been fading.
簡而言之，對太多的人來說，美國夢在逐漸消失。
Such an assertion may seem to fly in the face of recent economic data and even the long upward slope of history.
這種說法似乎與近期的經濟數據以及歷史上長期上升趨勢背道而馳。
Between 2013 and 2016, after all, the median income for U.S. families grew 10%, according to the Federal Reserve Board's oft-cited Survey of Consumer Finances.
畢竟，根據美國聯邦儲備委員會經常引用的消費者財務狀況調查，在2013年到2016年間，美國家庭收入的收入中位數增長了10%。
The unemployment rate, meanwhile, is at its lowest level since 1969—the year of the moon landing—
與此同時，失業率處于1969年以來最低水平——登月的那一年——
as the private sector has generated some 20 million new jobs since 2010. Wages, too, are at last starting to climb after a long stretch of stagnation.
自2010年以來，私營部門創造了約2000萬個新就業崗位。在經歷了一段長時期的停滯后，工資也終于開始上漲。
All really good signs, no? And yet for nearly every rah-rah measure in the economy of late, there is an asterisk:
真的都是很好的跡象，不是？但對于近期經濟采取的幾乎每一項令人叫好的措施，都標注了一個星號：
a footnote that suggests that a huge and perhaps growing subset of Americans is being left off the dance floor. Consider the most basic: wages.
一個腳注，表明一個龐大的美國群體正在被排除在舞臺之外，而這個群體的人數還在不斷增長?？紤]最基本的因素：工資。
For non-supervisors, average hourly earnings hit nearly $23 in November—a fact that, according to data from the Pew Research Center,
非管理層11月的平均時薪接近23美元——根據皮尤研究中心的數據，
gives today's workers slightly less purchasing power than those in January 1973, once inflation is factored in ($23.68 in 2018 dollars).
如果考慮通貨膨脹因素（以2018年美元價值計算為23.68美元），如今工人們的購買力稍遜于1973年一月的那些工人。
For years, the company CareerBuilder has conducted, via the Harris Poll, a large survey of U.S. workers across the business landscape.
多年來，凱業必達公司通過哈里斯民意測驗調查所，對美國業界的員工進行了一次大規模調查。
In 2017, a striking 40% of the nearly 3,500 respondents said they either always or usually live "paycheck to paycheck"—
2017年，在近3500名受訪者中，有40%的人表示他們總是或經常過著“月光族”的生活——
a level that was up four percentage points from the company's 2013 poll.
這一水平較該公司2013年的調查上升了4個百分點。
Such data is explained in part by recent research by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York,
紐約聯儲銀行的近期調查可以對這樣的數據作出部分解釋，
which reveals the $13.5 trillion IOU that American families have kept locked inside their desk drawers.
該調查顯示，美國家庭的抽屜里鎖著13.5萬億美元的欠條。
This past September, aggregate household debt balances jumped for the 17th straight quarter,
去年九月，美國家庭總債務余額連續第17個季度飆升，
with the debt now more than $800 billion higher than it was at its previous peak in 2008.
目前的債務規模比2008年達到的上一個峰值高出逾8000億美元。
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