Section outline

  • General

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  • 稀缺、选择和资源

    What is Economics?
    ::什么是经济学?

    Ultimately, economics is the study of choice. Because choices range over every imaginable aspect of human experience, so does economics. Economists have investigated the nature of family life, the arts, education, crime, sports, job creation—the list is virtually endless because so much of our lives involves making choices.
    ::归根结底,经济学是选择的研究。 因为人类经历的每一个可以想象的方面都有不同的选择,经济学也是如此。 经济学家调查了家庭生活的性质、艺术、教育、犯罪、体育、创造就业等 — — 这份清单几乎是无穷无尽的,因为我们生活的很多都涉及做出选择。

    How do individuals make choices: Would you like better grades? More time to relax? More time watching movies? Getting better grades probably requires more time studying, and perhaps less relaxation and entertainment. Not only must we make choices as individuals, we must make choices as a society. Do we want a cleaner environment? Faster economic growth? Both may be desirable, but efforts to clean up the environment may conflict with faster economic growth. Society must make choices.
    ::个人如何做出选择:你想要更好的成绩? 更多时间放松? 更多时间看电影? 更好的成绩可能需要更多时间学习,也许需要更少的放松和娱乐。 我们不仅必须作为个人做出选择,我们还必须作为一个社会做出选择。 我们是否想要一个更清洁的环境?加快经济增长?两者可能都是可取的,但清理环境的努力可能与更快的经济增长发生冲突。 社会必须做出选择。

    Economics is defined less by the subjects economists investigate than by the way in which economists investigate them. Economists have a way of looking at the world that differs from the way scholars in other disciplines look at the world. It is the economic way of thinking; this  unit introduces that way of thinking.
    ::经济学与经济学家调查的方式相比,对经济学的界定较少于经济学家调查的主题。 经济学家对世界的看法不同于其他学科的学者对世界的看法。 这是经济思维方式;这个单位引入了这种思维方式。

      is a social science that examines how people choose among the alternatives available to them. Economics can be described as social because it involves people and their behavior. Economics is also a science because it uses, as much as possible, a scientific approach in its investigation of choices.
    ::经济学是一种社会科学,它研究人们如何选择他们可以选择的替代品。 经济学可以被描述为社会经济学,因为它涉及到人及其行为。 经济学也是科学,因为它尽可能地使用科学方法来调查选择。

    Universal Generalizations       
    ::普遍化

    • Consumers decide how resources are allocated and what is produced.
      ::消费者决定如何分配资源和生产什么。
    • Since resources are limited, people must make choices related to goods and services.
      ::由于资源有限,人们必须作出与货物和服务有关的选择。
    • Scarcity is the condition of not being able to have all of the goods and services one wants because wants exceed what can be made from all available resources at any given time.
      ::匮乏是无法拥有人们所想要的所有商品和服务的条件,因为人们所想要的商品和服务超过了在任何特定时间可利用的一切资源所能提供的东西。
    • The wealth that an economy generates is made possible by the circular flow of economic activity.
      ::经济活动循环流动使经济产生的财富成为可能。

    Guiding Questions
    ::问 问 问 问 问 问 问 问 问 问 问 问 问 问 问 问 问 问 问 问 问 问 问 问 问 问 问 问 问 问 问 问 问 问 问 问 问 问 问 问 问 问 问 问 问 问 问 问 问 问 问 问 问 问 问 问 问 问 问 问 问 问 问 问 问 问 问 问 问 问 问 问 问 问 问 问 问 问 问 问 问 问 问 问 问 问 问 问 问 问 问 问 问 问 问 问 问 问

    1. What kinds of goods and services are required to meet peoples’ needs and a wants?
      ::为满足人民的需要和愿望,需要何种商品和服务?
    2. What goods will be produced?  How will they be produced?   For whom will they be produced?
      ::将生产什么产品,将如何生产呢?将为谁生产呢?

    Scarcity, Choice, and Cost

    All choices mean that one alternative is selected over another. Selecting among alternatives involves three ideas central to economics: scarcity, choice, and opportunity cost.
    ::所有选择都意味着选择一种选择优于另一种选择。 选择其他选择涉及三个对经济学至关重要的想法:稀缺、选择和机会成本。

    Scarcity

    Our resources are limited. At any one time, we have only so much land, so many factories, so much oil, so many people. But our wants, our desires for the things that we can produce with those resources, are unlimited. We would always like more and better housing, more and better education—more and better of practically everything.
    ::我们的资源是有限的,在任何一个时候,我们只有这么多的土地,这么多的工厂,这么多的石油,这么多的人。 但我们的愿望,我们用这些资源生产的东西的欲望是无限的。 我们总是想要更多更好的住房,更多更好的教育 — — 几乎所有东西都更好。

    If our resources were also unlimited, we could say yes to each of our wants—and there would be no economics. Because our resources are limited, we cannot say yes to everything. To say yes to one thing requires that we say no to another. Whether we like it or not, we must make choices.
    ::如果我们的资源也是无限制的,我们可以对我们每一个想要的东西说“是”——也不会有经济学。因为我们的资源是有限的,我们不能对每件事都说“是”。对一件事说“是”就要求我们拒绝另一件事情。不管我们是否喜欢,我们必须做出选择。

    Our unlimited wants are continually colliding with the limits of our resources, forcing us to pick some activities and to reject others.     is the condition of having to choose among alternatives. A     is one for which the choice of one alternative requires that another be given up.
    ::我们无限的愿望不断与我们资源的限制相冲突,迫使我们挑选一些活动和拒绝其他活动,这是必须选择其他选择的条件。 选择一种选择需要放弃另一种选择。

    Consider a parcel of land. The parcel presents us with several alternative uses. We could build a house on it. We could put a gas station on it. We could create a small park on it. We could leave the land undeveloped in order to be able to make a decision later as to how it should be used.
    ::这块地是一片土地,那块地为我们提供了若干其他用途。我们可以在其中建造一座房屋,我们可以在其中建一个加油站,我们可以在其中建一个小公园,我们可以在其中建一个小公园,我们可以让这片未开发的土地上,以便我们日后决定如何使用。

    Suppose we have decided the land should be used for housing. Should it be a large and expensive house or several modest ones? Suppose it is to be a large and expensive house. Who should live in the house? If the Lees live in it, the Nguyens cannot. There are alternative uses of the land both in the sense of the type of use and also in the sense of who gets to use it. The fact that land is scarce means that society must make choices concerning its use.
    ::假设我们已决定用那片土地来建房,那片土地是一座大而贵的房屋,还是多座贵的房屋?如果是一座大而贵的房屋,谁应该住在这栋房屋里?如果是李家的人住在里面,Nguyens是不能住的。从使用类型和谁可以使用的角度来说,土地还有其他用途。土地稀缺的事实意味着社会必须就土地的使用作出选择。

    Virtually everything is scarce. Consider the air we breathe, which is available in huge quantity at no charge to us. Could it possibly be scarce?
    ::几乎每样东西都少之又少。想想我们呼吸的空气,这种空气数量巨大,对我们来说是免费的。这会不会是稀缺的呢?

    The test of whether air is scarce is whether it has alternative uses. What uses can we make of the air? We breathe it. We pollute it when we drive our cars, heat our houses, or operate our factories. In effect, one use of the air is as a garbage dump. We certainly need the air to breathe. But just as certainly, we choose to dump garbage in it. Those two uses are clearly alternatives to each other. The more garbage we dump in the air, the less desirable—and healthy—it will be to breathe. If we decide we want to breathe cleaner air, we must limit the activities that generate pollution. Air is a scarce good because it has alternative uses.
    ::空气是否稀少的检验标准是空气是否有其他用途。我们可以对空气做哪些用途?我们吸气。当我们驾驶汽车、加热房屋或操作工厂时,我们污染空气。实际上,空气的一处用途是垃圾堆,我们当然需要呼吸空气。但同样,我们选择在空气中倾倒垃圾。这两种用途显然是相互替代的。在空气中倾倒的垃圾越多,越不可取——而且健康——就是呼吸。如果我们决定呼吸清洁空气,我们就必须限制产生污染的活动。空气是稀有的,因为它有其他用途。

    Not all goods, however, confront us with such choices. A     is one for which the choice of one use does not require that we give up another. One example of a free good is gravity. The fact that gravity is holding you to the earth does not mean that your neighbor is forced to drift up into space! One person’s use of gravity is not an alternative to another person’s use.
    ::然而,并非所有的商品都向我们提出了这样的选择。 一种用途的选择并不要求我们放弃另一种用途。 一种免费商品的一个例子就是重力。 重力将你带到地球的事实并不意味着你的邻居被迫漂浮在太空中。 一个人使用重力不能替代另一个人的用途。

    There are not many free goods. Outer space, for example, was a free good when the only use we made of it was to gaze at it. But now, our use of space has reached the point where one use can be an alternative to another. Conflicts have already arisen over the allocation of orbital slots for communications satellites. Thus, even parts of outer space are scarce. Space will surely become more scarce as we find new ways to use it. Scarcity characterizes virtually everything. Consequently, the scope of economics is wide indeed.
    ::没有太多免费物品。例如,外层空间是我们唯一利用它来观察的免费物品。但现在,我们对空间的利用已达到了一种用途可以替代另一种用途的地步。由于通信卫星轨道位置的分配,冲突已经爆发了。因此,即使外层空间的一部分也十分稀少。随着我们找到新的利用方法,空间肯定会更加稀少。缺乏几乎是一切事物的特征。因此,经济学的范围确实很广。

    Video: Scarcity and Markets
    ::视频:稀缺和市场

    Think about scarcity this way.  A ccording to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics  in 2012, the labor force in the United States contained over 155.5 million workers. Similarly, the total area of the United States is 3,794,101 square miles. These are large numbers for such crucial resources, however, they are limited. Because these resources are limited, so are the numbers of goods and services we can produce with them. Combine this with the fact that human wants seem to be virtually infinite, and you can see why scarcity is a problem.
    ::以这种方式来思考稀缺问题。 根据2012年美国劳动统计局的数据,美国劳动力拥有超过1.555亿工人。 同样,美国劳动力的总面积为3,794,101平方英里。然而,这些是如此重要资源的大量数量,但数量有限。由于这些资源有限,我们生产的商品和服务数量也有限。 将这一点与人类愿望似乎无穷无尽这一事实结合起来,你可以看到为什么稀缺是一个问题。

    Click on the links below to see how cities in our area, to include El Paso, have been dealing with water scarcity:
    ::包括埃尔帕索在内, 我们地区的城市如何处理缺水问题:

    If you still do not believe that scarcity is a problem, consider the following questions:
    ::如果您仍不认为稀缺是一个问题,请考虑以下问题:

    • Does everyone need food to eat?
      ::每个人都需要食物吃饭吗?
    • Does everyone need a decent place to live?
      ::每个人都需要一个体面的地方住吗?
    • Does everyone have access to health care?
      ::每个人都有机会获得保健吗?

     

    Figure 1: This image, (that depicts a homeless person sleeping on a bench in El Paso, Texas), is a stark reminder that scarcity of resources is real.

     

    This image, depicting a homeless person sleeping on a city bench, is a stark reminder of the reality of scarcity.
    ::这幅描绘无家可归的人睡在城市长椅上的画面,

    Scarcity and the Fundamental Economic Questions
    ::贫困和基本经济问题

    The choices we confront as a result of scarcity raise three sets of issues. Every economy must answer the following questions:
    1. What should be produced?   Using the economy’s scarce resources to produce one thing requires giving up another. Producing better education, for example, may require cutting back on other services, such as health care. A decision to preserve a wilderness area requires giving up other uses of the land. Every society must decide what it will produce with its scarce resources.
      ::怎样生产? 利用经济的稀缺资源生产一件事情需要放弃另一件事情。 比如,提供更好的教育可能需要削减其他服务,比如医疗保健。 保护荒野地区的决定需要放弃土地的其他用途。 每个社会都必须决定用稀缺资源生产什么产品。
    2. How should goods and services be produced?   There are all sorts of choices to be made in determining how goods and services should be produced. Should a firm employ a few skilled or a lot of unskilled workers? Should it produce in its own country or should it use foreign plants? Should manufacturing firms use new or recycled raw materials to make their products?
      ::如何生产商品和服务?在决定如何生产商品和服务方面,可以作出各种选择。 公司应该雇用少数技术工人或大量非技术工人吗?公司应该在本国生产还是应该使用外国工厂?制造业公司应该使用新原材料还是再生原材料生产产品?
    3. For whom should goods and services be produced?   If a good or service is produced, a decision must be made about who will get it. A decision to have one person or group receive a good or service usually means it will not be available to someone else. For example, representatives of the poorest nations on earth often complain that energy consumption per person in the United States is 17   times   greater than energy consumption per person in the world’s 62 poorest countries. Critics argue that the world’s energy should be more evenly allocated. Should it? That is a “for whom” question.
      ::对谁应该生产商品和服务?如果生产货物或服务,就必须决定由谁提供。 决定让一个人或一个群体获得货物或服务,通常意味着它不会提供给别人。 比如,地球上最贫穷国家的代表经常抱怨说,美国人均能源消费是世界62个最贫穷国家人均能源消费的17倍。 批评者认为,世界能源应该更加均衡地分配。 这应该是一个“谁”的问题。
    Every economy must determine what should be produced, how it should be produced, and for whom it should be produced. We shall return to these questions again and again.

    Opportunity Cost

    It is within the context of scarcity that economists define what is perhaps the most important concept in all of economics, the concept of opportunity cost.     is the value of the best alternative forgone in making any choice.
    ::正是在稀缺的背景下,经济学家界定了也许是所有经济学中最重要的概念 -- -- 机会成本概念。 机会成本概念 -- -- 是在做出任何选择时最好选择的价值。

    The opportunity cost to you of reading the remainder of this chapter will be the value of the best other use to which you could have put your time. If you choose to spend $20 on a potted plant, you have simultaneously chosen to give up the benefits of spending the $20 on pizzas or a paperback book or a night at the movies. If the book is the most valuable of those alternatives, then the opportunity cost of the plant is the value of the enjoyment you otherwise expected to receive from the book.
    ::阅读本章剩余部分的机会成本将是您本可以投入时间的其他最佳用途的价值。 如果您选择在陶工厂上花费20美元, 您会同时选择放弃在披萨、 纸本或电影之夜花费20美元的好处。 如果这本书是最有价值的替代品, 那么植物的机会成本是您原本期望从这本书中得到的享受的价值 。

    The concept of opportunity cost must not be confused with the purchase price of an item. Consider the cost of a college or university education. That includes the value of the best alternative use of money spent for tuition, fees, and books. But the most important cost of a college education is the value of the forgone alternative uses of time spent studying and attending class instead of using the time in some other endeavor. Students sacrifice that time in hopes of even greater earnings in the future or because they place a value on the opportunity to learn. Or consider the cost of going to the doctor. Part of that cost is the value of the best alternative use of the money required to see the doctor. But, the cost also includes the value of the best alternative use of the time required to see the doctor. The essential thing to see in the concept of opportunity cost is found in the name of the concept. Opportunity cost is the value of the best opportunity forgone in a particular choice. It is not simply the amount spent on that choice.
    ::机会成本的概念决不能与某项目的购买价格相混淆。 考虑大学或大学教育的成本,这包括最佳替代使用学费、学费和书籍费用的价值。 但是,大学教育最重要的成本是放弃学习和上课时间的替代使用价值,而不是在其他努力中使用时间的价值。 学生为了希望将来有更大的收入而牺牲这一时间,或者因为他们对学习机会的价值而牺牲这一时间。 或者考虑去看医生的成本。 部分成本是最佳替代使用看医生所需的资金的价值。 但是,成本还包括最佳替代使用看医生所需时间的价值。 在机会成本概念中,从概念的名下可以看出,机会成本是特定选择的最佳机会的价值。 机会成本不仅仅是用于这一选择的数额。

    The concepts of scarcity, choice, and opportunity cost are at the heart of economics. A good is scarce if the choice of one alternative requires that another be given up. The existence of alternative uses forces us to make choices. The opportunity cost of any choice is the value of the best alternative forgone in making it.
    ::稀缺、选择和机会成本的概念是经济学的核心。 如果选择一种选择要求放弃另一种选择,那么好就很少了。 替代用途的存在迫使我们做出选择。 任何选择的机会成本都是在做出选择时失去的最佳选择的价值。

    Video: I, Pencil
    ::录像:I,Pencil

    Needs vs. Wants
    ::需求与需求对需求

    Consumers may use the terms “needs” and “wants” interchangeably and not realize the subtle differences between them.  Needs are a basic requirement for survival and include:  food, clothing, and shelter. Wants are a way of expressing those needs.  To satisfy the “need” for food, a person may express it as a “want”.  For example: I need food, I want pizza.  I need clothing, I want Nike tennis shoes. I need shelter, I want to live in a mansion.
    ::消费者可以互换地使用“需要”和“wants”这两个术语,而没有意识到它们之间的微妙差别。需求是生存的基本要求,包括:食物、衣着和住所。需求是表达这些需求的一种方式。为了满足对食物的“需要”,一个人可以把它说成是“想要”的。例如:我需要食物,我要披萨。我需要衣服,我要耐克网球鞋。我需要住房,我想住在豪宅里。

        There is no such thing as a free lunch!
    ::没有免费午餐这种东西!

    Resources are limited and everything we do has some cost. The idea of  “Buy One, Get One Free” is not actually correct; someone must pay for “the free” one. The cost of the “free” item will get passed on to someone else. For example, if a restaurant is giving away “free appetizers” then the business will need to recover these costs by passing the charges on to other customers by raising prices. Therefore the idea that “there is no such thing as a free lunch” is another way to say that the consumer may not always be getting the great deal that he thinks he is getting because someone always has to pay for the production in the end. 
    ::资源有限,我们做的一切都有一定的成本。 “买一,买一免费”的想法实际上并不正确;有人必须为“免费”买单。 “免费”项目的成本将转嫁给别人。 比如,如果一家餐馆给别人“免费开胃菜 ” , 那么企业就需要通过提高价格将收费转嫁给其他客户来收回这些费用。 因此,“没有免费午餐”的想法是另一种说法,即消费者可能不会总能得到他认为他能得到的很多东西,因为最终总会有人支付生产费用。

    Answer the self check questions below to monitor your understanding of the concepts in this section.
    ::回答下面的自我核对问题,以监测你对本节概念的理解。

    Self Check Questions
    ::自查问题

    1. What is scarcity? Can you think of two causes of scarcity?
    ::1. 稀缺是什么?你能想到稀缺的两个原因吗?

    2. What are the three basic questions that must be asked in relation to economics?
    ::2. 在经济学方面必须提出的三个基本问题是什么?

    3. List three examples of goods or services that are not scarce.
    ::3. 列举三个并非稀缺的商品或服务的例子。

    4. How does scarcity affect you and your life? Provide at least three examples of items that you have had to do without because of limited resources. How did you adjust to this situation? Were you able to find suitable substitutions?
    ::4. 稀缺对你和你的生活有何影响?提供至少三个例子,说明由于资源有限而不得不做的物品。你如何适应这种情况?你能找到合适的替代物吗?

    5. Explain the concept of opportunity cost. Explain how opportunity cost affects choices that you make in your own life.
    ::5. 解释机会成本的概念,解释机会成本如何影响你自己生活中作出的选择。