智慧人生篇章 第54期:市场经济中的价值观

　　The government and the Labour Party disagreed yesterday about what sort of enquiry there should be into the Libor scandal, but they both agreed there're needs to be such an enquiry. Something went wrong and it's important to find out why. What interests me, however, is a very much bigger question. Something's gone profoundly wrong, not just with the banks, but with so much else in recent years: MP's expenses, phone hacking 1, financial mis-selling and the widespread irresponsibility that brought the whole financial pack of cards come tumbling down.
　　政府和工党昨日就对对伦敦银行同业拆放利率丑闻进行何种调查一事产生分歧，但他们都认为应该对此进行调查。当发现问题时找出原因是十分重要的。然而，让我感兴趣的是一个更大的问题。我们在某方面真是大错特错，不仅仅是银行业，近几年我们在其他许多方面都犯了严重的错误，如：议员开销、电话截听、不当销售以及普遍存在的不负责任的态度，令整个金融牌堆摇摇欲坠。
　　What's gone wrong? And how did we get into this terrible state? There're some very interesting answers now beginning to emerge, particularly, I think from the Harvard Professor Michael Sandel. Here's just one of the vivid examples from his latest book. In Israel on one day in a year students go from house to house collecting for good causes. Some economists 2 decided 3 to conduct an experiment. One group of students were given a motivating speech and sent on their way. Two other groups were promised a personal bonus on all they collected. This did not come out of the money given for good causes. What the economists discovered is that the group who acted on a purely 4 voluntary basis collected as much as 55% more than those who were given a personal financial reward. Sandel's first point is that economic incentives 5 might not even work from an economic point of view, but his main theme is that they can crowd out and undermine precious values, like doing something good for its own sake, or a sense of service to society. If Sandel is right and our most fundamental values are being eroded 6 by giving everything in life a monetary 7 value, this has, I think, huge implications for the market itself. For as the great founding father of modern capitalism 8 Adam Smith stressed time and again, the market depends on non-market values like honesty and trust.
　　到底哪里出了错？我们是怎样陷入如此糟糕的境地的？目前，开始出现了一些有趣的答案，我认为最有意思的当属哈佛大学教授迈克尔·桑德尔的回答。他在最新的书中举了一个非常生动的例子。在以色列，学生每年要在某天挨家挨户地募集善款。一些经济学家决定做一项实验。他们让其中一组学生在出发前听了一场激动人心的演讲。他们还向另外两组学生做出保证，要根据募集到的捐款额给他们发放个人奖金。奖金不来自募捐得到的资金。经济学家发现纯粹自愿募集善款的小组比获得个人奖励的小组筹得的捐款多55%。桑德尔的第一个观点就是，从经济的角度上来看，就连经济刺激都并非有效。不过他的主要观点是经济刺激可能会排挤并且损害一些珍贵的价值观，比如全心全意地做善事或者服务社会。如果桑德尔是正确的，如果给生活中的每件事赋予货币价值会使我们最基本的价值观受到侵蚀，那么，我认为这一观点对市场本身而言意义重大。因为，正如同现代资本主义的鼻祖亚当·斯密再三强调的那样，市场取决于像诚信和信任这样的非市场化的价值观。
　　By seeing everything in economic terms we are undermining the very values on which the market itself depends. Sometimes when particularly depressed 9 about the worst effects of market capitalism and I wonder if there is a better way, I go back and remind myself of why markets exist at all. People come together in a local town to sell eggs, chickens and vegetables to get cash so that they in their turn can buy other food, animals and other goods. The market is a human contrivance so that we can all live, and live better than if we were simply on our own. It's a means to an end not an end in itself. To adapt the words of Jesus, the market exists for humans and not humans for the market. It has to be set within that wider frame of reference of human community and those values on which all human community depends.
　　如果用经济术语来看待每一件事，我们就正在损害市场所依赖的价值观。有时，当对市场资本主义所造成的严重后果灰心丧气，很想知道是否有更好的方法时，我回过头提醒自己市场究竟为何存在。人们前往当地的市区靠卖鸡蛋、小鸡和蔬菜赚钱，这样他们才能购买其它的食物、动物和商品。市场是人们创造出的产物，它让我们得以生存，使我们能更好地独自生活。市场是通向终点的途径，但不是终点本身。把耶稣的话做一下改动，市场为人存在，而并非人为市场存在。这一理念必须设定在人类社会的准则以及其所依赖的价值观中。