評論
打印
Narrator: Listen to part of a lecture in a United States Government class.
請聽美國政府課上的部分內容
Professor: We've been talking about the basic services and facilities that an economy needs to function: roads, bridges, rail systems, water supplies, power grids, and so forth, what we call infrastructure.
教授：我們一直在講經濟運行需要的基本服務和設施，比如道路、橋梁、鐵路系統、供水、電網等等，我們把這些叫做基礎設施。
Now, traditionally much of a society's infrastructure, particularly the transportation infrastructure, has been owned and operated by states, by governments.
傳統上來說，一個社會的大部分基礎設施，特別是交通設施都是為國家，為政府所有和運營的。
But lately, local and state governments have started to consider and sometimes actually enter into various deals to privatize parts of their infrastructure, particularly in the transportation sector.
但是近來，地方和州政府開始考慮，實際上有時候已經達成了各種交易把它們的部分設施私有化，特別是交通部門的設施。
And why is this privatization happening?
這種私有化為什么會產生呢？
Well, as you may know, in the 1950s and 60s there was a tremendous highway building boom.
你們也許知道，在二十世紀五十年代和六十年代有一個巨大的高速公路修建大潮。
Governments created a huge interlocking network of highways with associated bridges and tunnels.
政府創造了一個巨大的高速公路連鎖網，還帶有橋梁和隧道。
But these facilities are getting old now and they're becoming more and more expensive to maintain, very expensive actually.
但是這些設施現在越來越舊了，而且要維護也越來越貴，實際上非常貴。
Tolls and tax revenues don't often cover all the needed repairs.
通行費和稅收收入通常無法負擔所有必需的維修費用。
Student: So why don't the governments just raise tolls and taxes?
學生：那政府為什么不直接增收通行費和稅呢？
Professor: Well, that's not so simple.
教授：沒有這么簡單。
Government officials are elected by voters and voters get upset when their taxes go up.
政府官員是由選民選舉產生的，稅金上調選民就會不滿。
And as for highways tolls, commuters especially don't like paying higher tolls, merely proposing increases can damage political careers.
至于高速公路通行費，通勤人士尤其不喜歡支付更高的通行費，僅僅提議增加費用都會損害他們的政治生涯。
So there's tremendous pressure on governments to find other ways to maintain infrastructure assets.
所以政府要找到其他方法維護這些基礎設施壓力山大。
One solution is to sell or lease a part of the infrastructure, a toll bridge, a tunnel, something like that to a private company, usually a company that specializes in this sort of thing.
一個解決方案是把部分基礎設施比如一座收費的橋、一個隧道之類的賣或租一家私營公司，這家公司通常是專門經營這種設施的。
The idea is that the company that buys or leases a bridge or a highway or whatever will find it easier to keep it in good repair.
政府的想法是，買下或租下了一座橋或一條高速之類的這家公司要保養這個設施會更簡單。
Student: That will make commuters happy.
學生：這樣通勤人士就高興了。
Professor: Right, there could be better service.
教授：沒錯，可能會有更好的服務。
Since they are not government entities, private companies face less political resistance, say to raising tolls in order to provide that better service.
因為他們不是政府部門，所以私營公司，比方說為了提供更好的服務而增收通行費時面對的政治阻力更少一些。
But besides that, there's another reason governments like these deals.
但是除此之外，政府喜歡這些交易還有一個原因。
States often have trouble paying their bills and they can use money they get from selling or leasing a piece of infrastructure to balance their budgets.
州政府通常都很難付清賬單，所以他們可以用從賣或出租部分基礎設施中得到的錢來平衡預算。
Student: That all sounds good to me.
學生：在我看來沒有問題啊。
