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Hello. I’m Craig and this is Crash Course Government and Politics
你好。我是克雷格，这里是政府与政治速成班
and today we’re going to turn to a topic that is near and dear to our wallets at Crash Course: economics.
今天我们要讲的话题，对我们的钱包来说，是非常重要的，那就是经济学。
Now, I know that dedicated fans are saying: ”Hold on Craigers, you have a whole series about economics.
现在，我知道忠实的粉丝在说:“别急，克雷格斯，你有一整套关于经济的东西。
Tell me about government.”
给我讲讲政府吧。”
To those fans, I say: “you’re right…and don’t call me Craigers.”
对那些粉丝，我说:“你是对的……不要叫我克雷格。”
But this episode is going to be about the role that government plays in the economy, specifically, the way that government creates the market economic system that we know and love.
但这一集将会是关于政府在经济中扮演的角色，具体来说，是关于政府创造我们所熟知和喜爱的市场经济体系的方式。
Before I get into the ways that government creates a market economy, let me be right up front and say that we’re going to posit that without some government, it wouldn’t be possible for a market economy to exist.
在我开始讲政府创造市场经济的方式之前，让我先假设，没有政府，市场经济就不可能存在。
I realize that this is a bit controversial, with many people believing that markets are natural phenomena that follow laws like “supply and demand” that are analogous to real physical laws like, say, gravity.
我意识到这有点争议，许多人认为市场是自然现象，遵循“供需”之类的定律，类似于真实的物理定律，比如万有引力。
Which is also a movie starring George Clooney - he aged so well.
这也是一部由乔治·克鲁尼主演的电影——他年纪这么大。
This is an interesting construct and one that has important political ramifications,
这是一个有趣的结构，具有重要的政治影响，
because if you believe in it, then basically there’s nothing that the government can, or should, do to improve the economy.
因为如果你相信它，那么基本上政府就没有什么可以做的，或者应该做的来改善经济。
I’ll leave it to commenters to argue this point, but I stand by my statement: We wouldn’t have a market economy without government.
关于这一点，我将留给评论人士去争论，但我坚持我的观点：没有政府，我们就不会有市场经济。
So economically-minded political scientists, AND politically-minded economists, will tell you that there are a number of ways that government structures the economy in the U.S.
因此，有经济头脑的政治学家和有政治头脑的经济学家会告诉你，在美国，政府构建经济的方式有很多。
I’m going to go over eight of them, although there might be more.
我会讲8个，虽然可能会更多。
So, in no particular order, here it goes.
没有特定的顺序。
The government creates and maintains a market economy by: establishing law and order;
政府通过以下方式创造和维持市场经济:建立法律和秩序;
defining rules of property;
界定财产规则;
governing rules of exchange;
制定外汇规则;
setting market standards;
设置市场标准;
providing public goods;
供给公共物品
creating a labor force;
创造劳动力;
ameliorating externalities;
改善外部效应;
and promoting competition.
和促进竞争。
I think most of us can agree that a big part of the government’s job is to establish law and order.
我想我们大多数人都同意政府的主要工作是建立法律和秩序。
This idea goes back at least as far as the Enlightenment and Thomas Hobbes,
这个观点至少可以追溯到启蒙运动和托马斯霍布斯，
but since this is not Crash Course: Political Philosophy, I’m going to move on.
但既然这不是速成课:政治哲学，我就继续。
Law and order helps to structure the economy by providing predictability.
法律和秩序通过提供可预测性来帮助构建经济结构。
It is much harder to engage in trade or production for profit if you suspect that what you have to trade or sell may be taken away by bandits, like the Hamburglar.
如果你怀疑你所交易或出售的东西可能会被强盗(比如汉堡神偷)抢走，那么为了利润而从事贸易或生产就会困难得多。
But -- only -- in that case only if it’s burgers that you are actually trading.
但是——只有——在这种情况下，只有当你实际交易的是汉堡。
But it’s not just that the government, if it’s doing its job, can protect us from being robbed in the literal sense of the Hamburgler stealing our delicious, delicious burgers.
但这不仅仅是政府，如果它在做它的工作，可以保护我们免受抢劫字面意义上的汉堡神偷偷我们美味，美味的汉堡。
The government creates a legal system that can punish people who commit fraud, and knowing that they can be punished prevents people from committing fraud.
政府建立了一个法律体系，可以惩罚欺诈的人，知道他们可以被惩罚，防止人们欺诈。
Or at least I hope it does.
至少我希望如此。
Most of the time it does.
大多数时候是这样的。
Don’t do fraud kids.
不要欺骗孩子。
The second way that the government structures the economy is by defining rules of property.
政府构建经济的第二种方式是定义财产规则。
Now there are many people who will tell you that property is an inalienable right, sort of like something given by God.
现在有很多人会告诉你财产是一种不可剥夺的权利，有点像上帝赋予的东西。
I’m looking at you John Locke.
我在看你，约翰·洛克。
And John Locke would respond, “don’t tell me what I can’t do”
约翰洛克会说，别告诉我我不能做什么
but I would suggest that without government what you think of as your property might not be as “yours” as you think or want it to be.
但我想说的是，如果没有政府，你所认为的你的财产可能不会像你所想的或想要的那样是“你的”。
But isn’t this sweet polka dot button-up I’m wearing mine?
但我穿的这个可爱的圆点扣不是我的吗?
Well, it is because I paid for it and we have laws that say that payment for a good confers a title to it – we see this especially with land,
嗯，因为我付了钱，我们有法律规定，对一件商品的付款可以赋予它所有权——我们在土地上尤其看到这一点，
or as it’s known to the law as “real property” or perhaps “real estate.”
也就是法律上所说的"不动产"或者"不动产"
We don’t actually receive written titles when we buy most things,
当我们买大多数东西的时候，我们实际上并没有收到书面的标题，
but according to the law, if I can establish ownership by proving I paid for this shirt or somebody left it to me in their will or something then it’s mine.
但根据法律，如果我能证明我买了这件衬衫，或者有人在遗嘱中把它留给我，以此来确立所有权，那么这件衬衫就是我的了。
And if someone takes it from me, I can bring the law down on them - the courts, the legal system, or maybe the sheriff will help me get it back.
如果有人从我这里拿走了它，我可以把法律告到他们身上——法庭，法律体系，或者治安官会帮我拿回来。
A really concrete example of the way the laws create and protect property rights are trespass laws, which allow you to tell those noisy kids to get off your lawn.
法律创造和保护财产权的一个很具体的例子就是侵权法，它允许你让那些吵闹的孩子离开你的草坪。
Without trespass, who’s to say it’s not their lawn?
没有侵权法，谁能说这不是他们的草坪?
Basically ownership of anything is a bundle of rights establishing what you can do with that thing, whether it’s your car, or your house, or your eagle.
基本上，任何东西的所有权都是一系列的权利，这些权利决定了你可以用它做什么，不管是你的车，你的房子，还是你的老鹰。
And without legally established ownership rules, we can’t buy or sell or punch anything.
没有法律规定的所有权，我们就不能买卖任何东西。
And speaking of buying and selling, another way that the government structures the economy is through setting and governing rules of exchange.
说到买卖，政府构建经济的另一种方式是制定和管理交易规则。
Let’s go to the Thought Bubble.
让我们进入思想泡泡。
In most states there are complex rules that explain how and when, or even if you can sell something.
在大多数州，都有复杂的规则来解释如何、何时、甚至是否可以出售某些东西。
For example some localities, (like Indiana) have so called “blue laws” that prevent you from buying or selling alcohol on certain days.
例如，一些地方(如印第安纳州)有所谓的“蓝色法律”，禁止你在特定的日子买卖酒精。
Some counties in some states are completely dry, meaning that you can’t buy or sell alcohol at all, and for a brief (terrible) period in the US – prohibition – the Eighteenth amendment to the Constitution prohibited the “manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors”
在一些州的一些县是完全干燥的，这意味着你根本不能买或卖酒，在美国有一段短暂的(可怕的)时期——禁酒令——宪法第十八修正案禁止“制造、销售或运输令人陶醉的酒”
Manufacture, sale, and transportation, sound like the three main ingredients in an economy to me.
在我看来，制造、销售和运输是经济的三大要素。
Some exchanges are still flat-out forbidden by laws in the U.S..
一些交易所仍然被美国法律明令禁止。
Many drugs are called controlled substances for a reason, and that reason is that they are subject to government control.
许多药物被称为受控物质是有原因的，原因是它们受政府控制。
Some drugs are prohibited outright and if you make or sell or buy them you can be punished by the government.
有些毒品是完全禁止的，如果你制造、销售或购买毒品，你可能会受到政府的惩罚。
There are also laws preventing you from selling yourself into slavery, or from selling your body through prostitution, or selling parts of your body like your kidneys.
又有律法禁止你卖自己为奴，或者通过卖淫出卖自己的身体，或卖身体的一部分，如肾。
Some economists may question the wisdom of these rules, but they exist and by making and enforcing them the government can exert powerful control over what can and cannot be exchanged.
一些经济学家可能会质疑这些规则是否明智，但它们确实存在，通过制定和执行政府，可以对什么可以交换、什么不能交换施加强大的控制。
Thanks, Thought Bubble.
谢谢，思想泡泡。
Probably less controversial than the rules governing exchange is the government’s role in setting market standards.
政府在制定市场标准方面的角色，或许没有监管交易所的规则那么有争议。
This is something governments have been doing for a very long time, and you’ve probably learned about it in history class as the government’s setting up weights and measures.
这是政府已经做了很长一段时间的事情，你可能在历史课上已经学过了，政府设置了度量衡。
This may not seem like such a big deal until you consider that if you are paying someone for a pound of chick peas, you need to know what a pound is...
如果你想买一磅鹰嘴豆，你需要知道一磅是什么。
if you’re going to get the right amount for that sweet hummus.
如果你想要适量的鹰嘴豆泥。
This goes for measures too.
这也适用于度量。
If I am buying an acre of land, I want to make sure that I’m getting 4,046.86 square meters of land, or 43,560 square feet.
如果我买一英亩土地，我想确保我得到4046.86平方米的土地，或43560平方英尺。
And if I buy an acre in Scotland, I’m going to get even more since a Scottish acre is the equivalent of 1.27 U.S.acres.
如果我在苏格兰买一英亩，我将得到更多，因为一英亩苏格兰土地相当于1.27英亩美国土地。
Plus no one will look at me funny when I’m eating my haggis.
另外，当我吃羊杂碎的时候，没有人会笑着看我。
Basically this means is that the government insures that buyers and sellers are operating on the same playing field.
基本上，这意味着政府确保买家和卖家在同一个竞争环境下运作。
This used to be even more important when currency contained precious metals,
当货币中含有贵金属时，这一点曾经更为重要，
but I don’t want to get into a big argument about pennies and nickels –
但是我不想就便士和镍币大吵一架
that's John Green's thing, and we've all established that I'm not John Green.
这就是约翰·格林的风格，我们都知道我不是约翰·格林。
This brings us to public goods.
这就引出了公共产品。
Public goods are things and services that the government provides that can be enjoyed by everyone and, once provided, cannot be denied to a particular subset of the population.
公共产品是指政府提供的所有人都可以享受的东西和服务，一旦提供，就不能拒绝给特定的一部分人。
One example is public transportation: in many places the government provides bus or subway services to residents, not for free,
一个例子是公共交通:在许多地方，政府为居民提供公共汽车或地铁服务，而不是免费的，
but at highly subsidized costs, although if you’ve ridden the New York Subway recently it doesn’t always seem like the subsidies are big enough.
但如果你最近乘坐过纽约地铁，你会发现补贴并不总是足够多。
In many cases the government steps in to provide public goods when markets wouldn’t.
在很多情况下，政府会在市场不愿意提供公共产品的时候介入。
It’s not likely that private companies would provide an air-traffic control system, and even if they did, it would have to be highly regulated by the government anyway because you don’t want different cities and states enacting different rules about air-travel.
私人公司不太可能提供空中交通控制系统，即使他们提供了，它也必须受到政府的严格监管，因为你不希望不同的城市和州对空中旅行制定不同的规则。
That would be a literal disaster.
那将是一场真正的灾难。
Also, if it were up to unregulated markets, there wouldn’t be any flights to places with small populations because they wouldn’t be profitable.
此外，如果由不受监管的市场来决定，就不会有飞往人口较少地区的航班，因为这些地方不会盈利。
A really good example of the government providing a public good where the market wouldn’t step in is the rural electrification projects of the New Deal, the most famous of which sprang from the Tennessee Valley Authority.
一个很好的例子，政府提供了一个公共产品，而市场不会介入，那就是新政的农村电气化项目，其中最著名的是田纳西河谷管理局。
It wouldn’t have been profitable for power companies to provide electricity to rural towns and farms, so the government stepped in and provided it.
电力公司向农村城镇和农场提供电力是不可能盈利的，所以政府介入并提供了电力。
And since without electricity it’s pretty hard to watch Crash Course, I’m glad they did.
因为没有电很难看《速成班》，我很高兴他们看了。
We'd have to do, like, a Crash Course Live Play.
我们得做一个速成班的现场表演。
And I'm not good at live theater.
我不擅长现场表演。
You might have heard that the government is not a “job creator” and in some ways that’s true,
你可能听说过政府并不是一个“工作创造者”，在某些方面这是真的，
except for government jobs like firefighters and public school teachers and, if we’re talking the federal government, soldiers and sailors.
除了消防员、公立学校教师等政府工作，如果我们说的是联邦政府，还有士兵和水手。
But there are other ways that government efforts help to create a labor force.
但是，政府的努力还可以通过其他方式帮助创造劳动力。
The main way this happens is through compulsory education laws.
这主要是通过义务教育法实现的。
States require that kids go to school up to a certain age and this is to ensure, or at least try to ensure, that when they become adults they will have a level of competence that will enable them to be productive workers.
各州要求孩子们到一定年龄上学，这是为了确保，或者至少是试图确保，当他们长大后，他们将拥有一定的能力，使他们能够成为有生产力的工人。
Of course, employers could provide the necessary training at their own expense, but why would they do it if the government provides it for them?
当然，雇主可以自费提供必要的培训，但如果政府为他们提供培训，他们为什么要这样做呢?
Government also helps create the workforce by providing student loans, which help people pay for college.
政府还通过提供学生贷款帮助创造劳动力，学生贷款帮助人们支付大学学费。
And that's why college is so easy to pay for now. Right?
这就是为什么现在上大学很容易。对吧?
There are government-run training programs and, I suppose, the potential for the government to employ more people, like it did during the Great Depression with programs like the Works Progress Administration and the Civilian Conservation Corps.
有政府运营的培训项目，我想，政府有潜力雇佣更多的人，就像它在大萧条时期所做的项目一样，比如工程进展管理局和平民保护队。
Now if you’ll allow me to put on my economist’s hat – Stan, do we have budget for an economist’s hat?
现在请允许我戴上经济学家的帽子——斯坦，我们有经济学家帽子的预算吗?
No. Apparently economists wear very expensive hats.
不。显然，经济学家戴着非常昂贵的帽子。
I will try to explain what the government does to ameliorate negative externalities.
我将试着解释政府如何改善负外部性。
I love my externalities ameliorated.
我爱我的外在改善。
Especially the negative ones.
尤其是负面的。
An externality is an external effect that is a byproduct of a market transaction.
外部性是市场交易的副产品所产生的一种外部效应。
They can be positive or negative and can also be seen as the difference between the private cost and the social cost of economic behavior.
它们可以是积极的，也可以是消极的，也可以看作是经济行为的私人成本和社会成本之间的差异。
Here’s an example.
这是一个例子。
Driving is an economic behavior.
开车是一种经济行为。
Back in the 1970s gasoline included lead, which made engines run better but also polluted the air with lead, which, as we now know is very bad. Very, very bad.
早在20世纪70年代，汽油中就含有铅，铅可以使发动机运行得更好，但也会污染空气，正如我们现在知道的，非常非常糟糕。
Buying leaded gasoline and running your car on it was a private economic transaction but air pollution was a very public cost that neither the seller of the gasoline nor the purchaser had to pay.
购买含铅汽油并使用它来驾驶汽车是一项私人经济交易，但空气污染是一项非常公共的成本，无论是汽油销售者还是购买者都不必支付。
And air pollution was very costly in terms of public health.
空气污染对公众健康的影响非常大。
So the government ameliorated this by outlawing lead in gasoline and creating regulations that limited air pollution generally.
因此，政府通过禁止汽油中的铅以及制定限制空气污染的法规，改善了这一状况。
What this did was force companies and, by extension, purchasers to pay for these negative external costs.
这样做的结果是迫使公司，进而迫使购买者为这些负的外部成本买单。
Regulation is one way to deal with negative externalities.
监管是应对负面外部性的一种方式。
Another is through taxes, which we’ll deal with it in another episode.
另一个是通过税收，我们将在另一集中讨论。
The last way that the government creates our market economy, at least the last way I’m going to talk about, is by promoting competition.
政府创造市场经济的最后一种方式，至少是我要讲的最后一种方式，是促进竞争。
According to our old friend Adam Smith, the essence of a functioning market system is competition, and in a perfect world competition would ensure that people got the best products at the best prices.
根据我们的老朋友亚当·斯密的观点，一个正常运行的市场体系的本质是竞争，在一个完美的世界里，竞争会确保人们以最好的价格得到最好的产品。
But history has shown that corporations and individuals have often tried to stifle competition and create monopolies.
但历史表明，企业和个人往往试图扼杀竞争，创造垄断。
If there’s only one firm selling a product, that firm can charge whatever it wants, and this monopoly condition doesn’t usually benefit consumers.
如果只有一家公司销售一种产品，这家公司可以随意定价，而这种垄断状况通常不会让消费者受益。
At least not as much as it benefits monopolists.
至少对垄断者的好处没有那么多。
So government can and has stepped in to create laws to regulate monopolies.
因此，政府能够而且已经介入，制定法律来规范垄断。
The best known of these are the anti-trust laws, which are sometimes used against big corporations, like Standard Oil or more recently, Microsoft.
其中最著名的是反托拉斯法，它有时被用来对付大公司，如标准石油公司或最近的微软公司。
And the government can also grant anti-trust exemptions that allow monopolies, as it did for Major League Baseball.
此外，政府还可以授予反垄断豁免权，允许垄断，就像美国职业棒球大联盟所做的那样。
Either way, the government, under the Commerce Clause in the Constitution can pass laws that promote or inhibit competition, although usually it tries to make the marketplace more, rather than less, competitive.
无论如何，根据宪法中的商业条款，政府可以通过促进或抑制竞争的法律，尽管它通常试图使市场更具竞争力，而不是削弱竞争力。
So that's why I say the government has a big role to play in making a free market economy.
这就是为什么我说政府在建立自由市场经济中扮演着重要的角色。
You may not be convinced that without government a free market system wouldn’t be possible, and that’s ok.
你可能不相信没有政府就不可能有一个自由市场体系，但没关系。
You can think what you want.
你可以想你所想。
It's a free market.
这是一个自由市场。
Thanks for watching.
谢谢收看。
See you next time.
下次见。
Crash Course Government and Politics is produced in association with PBS Digital Studios.
政府与政治速成班是与PBS数字工作室联合制作的。
Support for Crash Course: U.S. Government comes from Voqal.
对美国政府速成课支持来自Voqal。
Voqal supports nonprofits that use technology and media to advance social equity.
Voqal支持使用技术和媒体促进社会公平的非营利组织。
Learn more about their mission and initiatives at Voqal.org.
更多关于他们的使命和倡议，请访问Voqal.org。
Crash Course was made with the help of all these free marketeers.
速成班是在所有这些自由市场商人的帮助下完成的。
Thanks for watching.
感谢收看。
