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As a member in good standing of America's middle class，one of the things that struck me most deeply when I arrived in Russia in July1998 was the marked difference between middle-class Americans and many of their Russian counterparts in their approaches to saving and investing family income. A few days after I began working in the Russian capital，I spotted a young mother with her three or four-year-old son，strolling through a park.Something about the picture seemed wrong to me，but I couldn't quite put my finger on it. Then，as I continued to look at the mother and boy，it suddenly came to me: the mother was dressed like a fashion model！She was wearing a beautiful blouse，a pair of well-tailored slacks，high-heeled leather shoes，and any number of beautifully coordinated accessories，including some flashy jewelry and a stylish purse.(The boy was dressed very nicely too.) I couldn't recall ever seeing a young American mother decked out in such expensive clothing. What surprised me，though，was not the fact that a Russian woman was dressed so beautifully on a pleasant late summer day but the fact that she had seemingly spent so much money on these leisure clothes。Very few middle-class American mothers would choose to spend that kind of money on clothes for themselves；quite the contrary，the dominant image of American suburban motherhood is the“mom in tennis shoes”(the rest of the wardrobe is just as functional，of course)；what else would a“soccer mom”wear？To my mind，what was most intriguing about these two contrasting images- the“mom in high heels”versus the“mom in tennis shoes”- was what it suggested not about fashion sense in the two countries，but about the values of the two middle classes: namely，that a Russian parent might feel more comfortable purchasing a nice outfit for him- or herself than would one in the US. It occurred to me that I was almost certainly over-generalizing on the basis of that one walk in the park. A few weeks later，however，a conversation with my Russian colleagues about plans for the upcoming holidays confirmed many of my impressions. It was October，and the talk in the office had turned to plans for the December holiday period. One after another，four of the ten Russians in my office outlined their vacation plans: Egypt，Mexico，Malaysia，the United States... At the time，nothing especially surprised me about their responses。As the subject came up with my American friends(in e-mail communications，for example)，I got answers like:“no particular plans”；to“grandma and grandpa's place in Texas”；“to Madison，Wisconsin”；“to New York”. And then it dawned on me: most young urban professionals in the US rarely travel overseas；many of them think they can't really afford it. Yet here were several Russian colleagues who，with salaries between$1000-1500( in U.S. dollar terms)，were each planning major international vacations costing four，five，six，even seven hundred dollars a person- about half a month's salary！And in every case，they'd taken similar overseas vacations on previous occasions，as had each and every one of our six other Russian colleagues. I was struck by the apparent cultural difference in what Americans and Russians thought they could afford on their respective salaries，and came to the conclusion that Russians are more willing than Americans to spend their hard-earned money on big-ticket items such as international vacations and top-tier clothing。At issue，to me，was not a person's actual level of objective wealth，but the very subjective sense of what that wealth ought to provide。(By the way，the Russians about whom I'm speaking are all doing better financially relative to their compatriots than the Americans；a $1000-a-month salary in Russia falls well within the top five percent of Russian incomes，but it would take ten times this figure to have a salary in the top five percent of US incomes.) Why do young Americans who are making more money than these Russians feel less free to spend it on things like international vacation packages and high fashion？(to be continued) (本文作者为美国驻俄罗斯外交官，曾在北京工作。)作为美国中产阶级实实在在一员的我，在1998年7月到达莫斯科之后不久而深感震惊的事情之一，是美国中产阶级与俄罗斯收入相当的人之间在家庭收入的储蓄、投资方式上的显著不同。 在俄罗斯首都开始工作后几天，我便在公园里看到了一个年轻妈妈带着她三四岁的孩子在溜达，对我来说这幅画面似乎有点不对劲儿，但我还说不清楚哪儿有问题。接着，当我继续观察这对母子时，我突然意识到，这位母亲的穿着就像个时装模特！她穿着漂亮的衬衣、紧身裤、高跟皮鞋，还有很多漂亮的饰物，包括耀眼的珠宝和时髦的手袋(那男孩也穿戴得很漂亮)。我不记得看到过年轻的美国妈妈有过如此昂贵的打扮。 然而，让我感到吃惊的并非是俄罗斯妇女在怡人的夏末时节穿戴得如此漂亮这事本身，问题在于她们把那么多钱花在了这些休闲装上。美国中产阶级中只有极个别的母亲会选择将钱花在给自己买衣服上；与之相反，美国一般母性的基本形象是“穿网球鞋的妈妈”(当然，其他衣物也都像网球鞋一样实用)，对于一个“足球妈妈”(指妈妈积极投身孩子所在学校的各项活动，如足球)来说，还有什么可穿戴的呢？对我而言，这两种对比鲜明的形象--“高跟鞋妈妈”与“网球鞋妈妈”--最让我感到有趣的是，它表明的并非是两个国家的时装观念，而是两个中产阶级的价值观；也就是说，俄罗斯的父母在为自己买漂亮衣服时比美国父母更觉坦然。 但我意识到，我是仅凭公园里一走，就在做很可能是过于概括性的结论。然而，几周以后，我和俄国同事谈到如何度过就要到来的假期时，谈话使我的诸多印象得到了确认。那时正值10月，办公室中的话题转到了12月圣诞节的度假计划。一个接一个，10个俄国同事中的4个列出了他们的度假计划：埃及、墨西哥、马来西亚、美国……当时，对于他们的计划，我并未感到特别吃惊。当同样的话题出现在我的在美国国内的朋友当中时(比如，通过电子邮件交流)，我得到的回答则是诸如：“没什么特别计划”、“去得克萨斯州爷爷奶奶家”、“去威斯康新州的麦迪逊城”、“去纽约”。于是我意识到美国多数在城市工作的有专长的年轻人，很少去国外旅行，他们中的很多人认为自己实际上无力担负旅行费用，可我这儿的好几个俄罗斯同事，工资约1000—1500美元，都在筹划着每人耗资400、500、600甚至700美元的昂贵的海外度假，其费用约为他们月工资的一半！而这几个人当中，以前都以同样的方式到海外度过假，就像我的另外6个俄罗斯同事每人都曾去过一样。 对于由美国人与俄国人各自认为用自己的工资能干些什么所反映出的明显的文化差别让我感到震惊并得出结论：俄国人比美国人更愿意把辛辛苦苦挣来的钱花在高消费项目上，如出国度假、高档服装等。我所关注的，并不在于一个人客观财富的实际水平，而是钱应该用来干什么的主观意向。(顺便说一句，我所说到的这些俄国人的工资比他们的同胞要高，在俄国，月工资1000美元属于占人口5%的高薪阶层，而在美国要想跻身占人口5%的高薪阶层，月收入要增加到10倍才行。) 那么，为什么美国的年轻人比这些俄国人挣得多，却不敢放手把钱花在出国度假，买高档时装等方面呢？(待续）
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