評論
打印
Now, as a policy matter -- I'm almost done -- as a policy matter, the thing to think about is this:
我快說完了。現在說說一個政策問題，我們該想想的一個政策問題是，
what enables all of this choice in industrial societies is material affluence.
給我們這個工業化社會帶來這么多選擇的，是物質的極大豐富。
There are lots of places in the world, and we have heard about several of them,
我們這個世界上還有很多地方，至少我們聽說過其中幾個，
where their problem is not that they have too much choice. Their problem is that they have too little.
在那里問題不是選擇太多，而是幾乎沒有。
So the stuff I'm talking about is the peculiar problem of modern, affluent, Western societies.
所以我在這里談的這個話題是現代富裕的西方社會的一個特殊問題。
And what is so frustrating and infuriating is this:
令人氣憤的問題是，
Steve Levitt talked to you yesterday about how these expensive and difficult-to-install child seats don't help. It's a waste of money.
史蒂夫·里維特昨天就說過，我們生產的那些昂貴而又難以操作的嬰兒汽車座椅于事無補，只是在浪費錢。
What I'm telling you is that these expensive, complicated choices -- it's not simply that they don't help. They actually hurt.
而我今天要說的就是這些昂貴的，復雜的選擇不僅僅是于事無補，它們其實在給我們帶來傷害。
They actually make us worse off.
它們其實讓我們變得不如從前。
If some of what enables people in our societies to make all of the choices we make
如果我們把給這個社會創造出這些選擇的人力物力拿出一部分來，
were shifted to societies in which people have too few options, not only would those people's lives be improved,
投入到那些現在人們還沒有足夠選擇的社會中去，那么不僅那里人們的生活可以得到改善，
but ours would be improved also, which is what economists call a "Pareto-improving move."
我們自己的生活質量也同樣得到提高。這就是經濟學家稱之為的帕累托改善的做法。
Income redistribution will make everyone better off -- not just poor people -- because of how all this excess choice plagues us.
產品的再分配會使得所有人，不僅僅是窮人的生活好起來，因為我們擺脫了那些像瘟疫般困擾我們的多余的選擇。
So to conclude. You're supposed to read this cartoon, and, being a sophisticated person, say,
結束之前，你們該看看這幅漫畫，并站在一個智者的立場說，
"Ah! What does this fish know? You know, nothing is possible in this fishbowl."
“哼，這條魚懂什么？告訴你，在這個魚缸里一切都是不可能的。”
Impoverished imagination, a myopic view of the world -- and that's the way I read it at first.
毫無想象力，目光短淺，我第一次看到這幅畫時是這么解讀的。
The more I thought about it, however, the more I came to the view that this fish knows something.
可是，我越想越明顯地感到這魚肯定知道些什么。
Because the truth of the matter is that if you shatter the fishbowl so that everything is possible, you don't have freedom. You have paralysis.
因為說實話，如果你想讓一切都變得有可能而把魚缸打破，你得到的不是自由，而是癱瘓（魚會死）。
If you shatter this fishbowl so that everything is possible, you decrease satisfaction.
如果你想讓一切都變得有可能而把魚缸打破，你反而降低了滿意度。
You increase paralysis, and you decrease satisfaction.
你增加了的是癱瘓，減少了的是滿足。
Everybody needs a fishbowl. This one is almost certainly too limited -- perhaps even for the fish, certainly for us.
每個人都需要這么個“魚缸”。至于這個（魚缸）嘛，對這條魚可能是小了點，對于我們幾乎肯定是太小了。
But the absence of some metaphorical fishbowl is a recipe for misery, and, I suspect, disaster. Thank you very much.
但是，沒有這么個象征性的魚缸，那就意味著苦難將至，也許是，災難。非常感謝。
