In fact, it's not a system at all: it is a ruinously expensive, tiring and highly political game in which almost everyone emerges a loser.

事实上，它根本算不上一个制度：它只是一个异常昂贵、使人疲惫而且勾心斗角的游戏。在这一制度下，几乎每个人都是输家。

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If introduced at the same flat rate throughout the country, this could be ruinously expensive for many small businesses, and stoke more inflation as employees seek to maintain their pay differentials.

如果在全国范围内实行统一的比例税率，这将使得许多小企业无法承受高昂的成本，而且雇员在追求差别工资的同时也会加剧通货膨胀。

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Litigation for defamation or breach of privacy is ruinously expensive.

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With Mr Palocci at his elbow, Lula might have scaled back the ruinously expensive pension system, brought sanity to labour-market regulation and simplified a fiendishly complex tax code.

ECONOMIST: Brazil: Lula opts for a quiet life | The

Apparently delicious, but ruinously expensive.

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