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60 Second Adventures in Economics
《60秒經濟學探奇》
Number Four: The Principle of Comparative Advantage.
第四節：比較優勢原理
Whether you think economies work best if they're left alone or that governments need to do something to get them working,
政府是放手還是管控對經濟體更好，姑且不論政府是放手還是管控對經濟體更好姑且不論
the one thing that can't be controlled is the rest of the world.
至少世界其它部分是無法控制的。
Fear of foreign competition once led countries to try and produce everything they needed,
對國外競爭的恐懼 一度讓各國試圖制造所有所需產品，
and impose heavy taxes to keep out foreign goods.
并征重稅以阻止外國產品進口。
However, economist David Ricardo showed that international trade could actually make everyone better off,
但是，經濟學家大衛·李嘉圖指出國際貿易能讓所有人都更富裕，
bringing in one of the first great economic models.
他是最初提出偉大經濟學模型的人之一，
He pointed out that, even if a country can produce pretty much everything at the lowest possible cost,
他指出就算一個國家能以盡可能低的成本生產幾乎所有東西，
with what economists call an 'absolute advantage', it's still better to focus on the products it can make most efficiently that
具有經濟學家所說的“絕對優勢”，能集中精力于生產效率最高的產品仍然會更好，
sacrifice the least amount of other goods and let the rest of the world do the same.
犧牲其它產品，讓世界其它國家也都這樣做。
By specialising, they can then export these surpluses to each other and both end up better off.
通過專門化，各國能將剩余出口給別國，這樣每個國家都能受益。
This is the principle of comparative advantage and it has persuaded many countries to sign up to free-trade agreements,
這就是比較優勢原理，這說服了很多國家簽署自由貿易協議，
but unfortunately, it can take a long time for countries to trade their way to prosperity.
但很不幸，需要很長時間，才能讓各國都通過貿易實現繁榮。
And because it's now much easier to move to where the money is it's increasingly not only goods that cross borders,
而且因為現在更容易遷移到錢多的地方，不僅商品可以跨越國界，
but people which has somewhat uprooted Ricardo's theory.
人也可以，這在某種程度上連根拔起了李嘉圖的理論。
