評論
打印
Professor: It does sound good, but a lot of people are very wary of privatizing pieces of infrastructure and rightly so.
教授：聽起來確實沒問題，但很多人都對私有化部分基礎設施表示擔心，而他們理當有這種擔憂。
For instance, in almost every case thus far, the first thing private companies do is drastically raise user fees because they say, "Oh, we must do critical maintenance that's gone undone for years and years.
比如說，在目前的幾乎每個案例中，私營公司做的第一件事就是大幅度增加使用者費用，因為他們說“我們必須進行多年以來一直沒做的重大維護。
And because we're a private company, we can't use tax money to do it. Our only option is raising tolls."
由于我們是私營公司，沒法用稅金來進行這些維護，所以我們唯一的選擇就是提高通行費了。”
But what's the impact on people who use a toll road to get to work?
但是這對那些要經過收費道路去上班的人有什么影響呢？
What if a private owner doubles or triples the toll overnight?
萬一私有者一夜之間把通行費翻一番或翻兩番怎么辦？
Student: Uh, users would have to spend a higher percentage of their income on commuting.
學生：這樣使用者就不得不把他們收入的更大一部分花在通勤上了。
Professor: And depending on their income, that percentage could be significant.
教授：而且根據他們的收入情況，那一部分可能很重要。
Student: But if tolls went up, me, I'd just avoid the toll road and take smaller back roads where there aren't any tolls.
學生：但是如果通行費漲了，是我的話，我會直接避開收費的道路，改走小一點的不收費的僻徑。
Professor: That's a good point, secondary roads would become attractive to lots of other people too, and private companies know this.
教授：說的不錯，支路也會吸引很多其他的人，而私營公司也知道這一點。
They also know that dramatic reductions in traffic would hurt their bottom line.
他們還知道交通的劇減會傷及他們的盈虧底線。
So market forces do play a role in keeping private companies from raising their tolls too much.
所以市場力量在防止私營公司增收太多通行費方面確實起著作用。
But the mere prospect of astronomical toll hikes is still alarming to governments when they think about selling or leasing parts of an infrastructure.
但是當政府考慮售賣或出租部分基礎設施時，僅僅是會出現極大的通行費用上漲的可能性仍很令他們擔憂。
Now, from a business standpoint, infrastructure purchases can be great investments.
從公司的角度來看，購買基礎設施是很棒的投資。
If a company buys or gets a long-term lease on a toll bridge from the government, it's got an almost guaranteed steady source of revenue for years and years, which means that if the company decides it wants to sell the bridge to another company, say ten years from now, it'll have no problem finding a buyer.
如果一家公司從政府那里購買或長期租下了一座收費的橋，它就得到了一個幾乎很多年有有保證的穩定收入來源，而這就意味著，如果這家公司決定向把這座橋賣給另一家公司，比如說十年，它很容易就能找到買家。
Student: But what if that buyer, this new owner, continues to charge a high toll but doesn't do the same amount of maintenance because they want to squeeze more money out of the assets?
學生：但是如果那個買家，也就是新的擁有者繼續征收高額通行費，但是因為他們想從這座資產中榨取更多金錢，他們又不進行同等的維護的話怎么辦？
Professor: In that case, could the governments buy the asset back?
教授：在那種情況下，政府能不能把這座橋買回去呢？
Well, to do that, it would have to raise money either by raising taxes or by selling bonds, both of which are politically sensitive.
要這么做的話，它必須要么通過增加稅收要么拋售債券才能籌到錢，而這兩者在政治上都很敏感。
So it's unclear in a practical sense whether these deals are truly reversible.
所以從現實意義上來說，這些交易是否真的可以撤銷還不明確。
