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60 second adventures in Economics—Number one: The Invisible Hand
《60秒经济学探奇》 第一节：无形之手
An economy is a tricky thing to control, and governments are always trying to figure out how to do it.
经济控制起来很棘手，各国政府总在想尽办法弄清怎么做。
Back in 1776 economist Adam Smith shocked everyone by saying that
1776年，经济学家亚当?斯密的话震惊了所有人
what governments should actually do is just leave people alone to buy and sell freely among themselves.
他说政府所要做的就是，别插手，让人们自由进行买卖。
He suggested that if they just leave self-interested traders to compete with one another,
他认为 让只关注自身利益的交易者相互竞争
markets are guided to positive outcomes 'as if by an invisible hand'.
市场会被引向正途“就像被一只无形之手所引导”。
If someone charges less than you, customers will buy from them instead so you have to lower the price or offer something better.
如果某人卖得比你便宜，顾客会到他那里买所以你需要降低价格，或提供更好产品。
Wherever enough people demand something, they will be supplied by the market
人们需求某种产品时 产品会由市场供给，
like spoilt children—only in this case, everyone's happy.
他们就像受宠的孩子 只有这样 大家才都开心
Later free-marketeers like Austrian economist Friedrich Hayek,
后期自由市场学者 比如奥地利经济学家弗里德里希·哈耶克
argued that this 'hands off' approach actually works better than any kind of central plan.
认为“放手”方式比任何中央计划方式都好。
But the problem is, economies can take a long time to reach their 'equilibrium',
但问题在于 经济需要很长时间才能达到“均衡”
and may even stall along the way. And in the meantime people can get a little frustrated,
甚至可能在中途停滞。这期间，人们会有些泄气，
which is why governments usually end up taking things into their own more visible hands instead.
这就是政府经常也会使用其“有形之手”的原因。
