돈으로 살 수 없는 것

가난이란 무엇인가? 어린이들에게 가난은 어떤 영향을 끼치는가? 그리고 돈으로 살 수 없는 것은 무엇인가?

 

김주열이라는 번역가의 블로그에서. 수잔 E. 메이어(Susan E. Meyer)가 지은 <What Money Can't Buy>라는 책의 연구노트 부분에 나오는 내용이라 한다. 미국의 아동빈곤율이 매우 높다는 점을 지적하고, 한국이 부익부빈익빈, 즉 양극화 때문에 미국을 따라가고 있다는 점을 지적하고 있다.

 

미국의 아동 빈곤율은 다른 선진국과 비교하면 높다. 1980년대 중반 자료는 다음과 같다(가장 최근 자료).

 

1.6% - 스웨덴

2.8% - 독일

4.6% - 프랑스

7.4% - 영국

9.3% - 캐나다

20.4%-미국

(미하원 세입위원회 House Ways and Means Committee 1993, p. 1453)

-<가난을 이해하기 위한 토대>(A Framework for Understanding Poverty)

 

수잔 메이어의 책은 아직까지 번역본이 나오지는 않은 듯싶다. '알라딘'에 검색하니 하버드대학 출판부에서 펴낸 책으로 확인된다. 이 책을 소개한 내용을 옮겨놓는다. 수잔 메이어에 따르면, "어린이들이 성공하기 위해 요구되는 물질적인 것과 정신적인 것을 오로지 돈만으로는 살 수 없다"고 한다. 

 

Children from poor families generally do a lot worse than children from affluent families. They are more likely to develop behavior problems, to score lower on standardized tests, and to become adults in need of public assistance.

 

Susan Mayer asks whether income directly affects children's life chances, as many experts believe, or if the factors that cause parents to have low incomes also impede their children's life chances. She explores the question of causation with remarkable ingenuity. First, she compares the value of income from different sources to determine, for instance, if a dollar from welfare is as valuable as a dollar from wages. She then investigates whether parents' income after an event, such as teenage childbearing, can predict that event. If it can, this suggests that income is a proxy for unmeasured characteristics that affect both income and the event. Next she compares children living in states that pay high welfare benefits with children living in states with low benefits. Finally, she examines whether national income trends have the expected impact on children. Regardless of the research technique, the author finds that the effect of income on children's outcomes is smaller than many experts have thought.

 

Mayer then shows that the things families purchase as their income increases, such as cars and restaurant meals, seldom help children succeed. On the other hand, many of the things that do benefit children, such as books and educational outings, cost so little that their consumption depends on taste rather than income. Money alone, Mayer concludes, does not buy either the material or the psychological well-being that children require to succeed.