safety-net

基本解释

California already has the worst credit rating among the 50 states, and budget cuts have torn a hole in the state’s social safety-net.
加州现在是美国国内信用等级最低的州，而削减预算已经使得居民社会保险出现亏空。
Second is better regulation. Despite improvements from EU membership, businesses still battle with profit-choking red tape. Third is a better social safety-net.
第二点是更优化的法规体系，尽管欧盟成员国的身份起到了很大的提升作用，但是商业还是在同阻碍利润的繁文缛节作斗争；
In any case, Mrs Merkel says she will not extend the safety-net beyond 2013 without big changes, such as ensuring that bondholders—not just taxpayers—bear some of the cost of future rescues.
在任何一种情况下，默克尔称，如果不作出诸如确保债权人（而不仅仅是纳税人）承担以后救助的部分成本之类的大幅变动的情况下，她不会将安全网续展超过2013年。

Germany -- like most of Europe -- has a broad safety net: benefits for the poor and unemployed, universal health care and good pensions.

Nor would America's still-powerful real-estate industry let its federal safety-net go without a fight.
ECONOMIST: America's housing market
The safety-net beneath the euro zone's third- and fourth-biggest economies is flimsy, and investors know it.
ECONOMIST: The euro crisis, part 394
The unions want the government to protect jobs and improve provisions for a social safety-net.
ECONOMIST: South Korea feels the pinch

A safety net is something that you can rely on to help you if you get into a difficult situation.
In a circus, a safety net is a large net that is placed below performers on a high wire or trapeze in order to catch them and prevent them being injured if they fall off.