2024年6月4日发(作者：)

UNIT4

1. Think for a moment about your own life — the activities of your day,

the possessions you enjoy, the surroundings in which you live. Is there

anything you don’t have at this moment that you would like to have?

Anything that you have, but that you would like more of? If your answer is

“no,” then congratulations — either you are well advanced on the path of

Zen self-denial, or else you are a close relative of Ted Turner . The rest of

us, however, would benefit from an increase in our material standard of

living. This simple truth is at the very core of economics. It can be

restated this way: we all face the problem of scarcity.

2 Almost everything in your daily life is scarce. You would benefit from a

larger room or apartment, so you have a scarcity of space. You have only

two pairs of shoes and could use a third for hiking; you have a scarcity of

shoes. You would love to take a trip to Chicago, but it is difficult for you to

find the time or the money to go — trips to Chicago are scarce.

3 Because of scarcity, each of us is forced to make choices. We must

allocate our scarce time to different activities: work, play, education,

sleep, shopping, and more. We must allocate our scarce spending power

among different goods and services: food, furniture, movies,

long-distance phone calls, and many others.

4 Economists study the choices we make as individuals and how those

choices shape our economy. For example, the goods that each of us

decides to buy ultimately determine which goods business firms will

produce. This, in turn, explains which firms and industries will hire new

workers and which will lay them off.

5. Economists also study the more subtle and indirect effects of individual

choice on our society. Will most Americans continue to live in houses, or

— like Europeans will most of us end up in apartments? Will we have an

educated and well-informed citizenry? Will museums and libraries be

forced to close down? Will traffic congestion in our cities continue to

worsen, or is there relief in sight? These questions hinge, in large part, on

the separate decisions of millions of people. To answer them requires an

understanding of how people make choices under conditions of scarcity.

6. Think for a moment about the goals of our society. We want a high

standard of living for all citizens: clean air, safe streets, and good schools.

What is holding us back from accomplishing all of these goals in a way

that would satisfy everyone? You probably already know the answer:

scarcity.

1. 想一想你的生活：你每天从事的活动，你所拥

有的财产，你所居住的环境。此时此刻，你是否

希望拥有一些你所没有的东西？对于那些你已

经拥有的，你是否希望拥有更多？如果你的答案

是否定的，那么恭喜你：你要么早已看破红尘，

要么就是腰缠万贯。然而，我们大多数人的答案

却是肯定的，我们都希望拥有更多，从而进一步

提高物质生活水平。这一简单的真理就是经济学

的核心。我们或许可以重新表述这个问题：我们

都面临稀缺。

2 几乎日常生活中的一切都是稀缺不足的。比

如说你希望你的房间或公寓能再大点儿，那么对

你而言，居住空间就是稀缺的；比如说你只有两

双鞋，你还想拥有一双适于徒步旅行，那么鞋子

对你来说就是稀缺的；再比如说你很想去趟芝加

哥，可是你既没有余钱也没有空闲去，那么芝加

哥之行对你而言就是稀缺的。

3 因为稀缺，我们不得不进行选择。我们不得

不把稀缺的时间在工作、娱乐休闲、教育、睡眠、

购物等不同的活动中进行分配；我们也不得不把

稀缺的金钱在食物、家具、电影、长途电话等不

同的产品和劳务中进行分配。

4. 经济学家研究社会中个体的选择及这些选择

对个体经济状况的影响。例如，个体对产品的选

择最终决定了企业生产什么产品，这继而又决定

了哪些企业要招工，哪些企业要裁员。

5 经济学家也研究个体的选择对社会所产生的

细微的间接的影响。多数美国人的家的归宿是独

立的房子还是像欧洲人那样的公寓?国民受教育

程度会越来越高吗?博物馆和图书馆以后都得关

门歇业吗?城市里的交通堵塞会越来越严重还是

会缓解在即呢?这些问题在很大程度上都取决于

成千上万个个体的决定。若想回答这些问题必须

明白人们如何在稀缺的前提下进行选择。

6.想一想我们社会的目标：全体国民生活水平的

提高、清新的空气、良好的治安、好的学校。是

什么原因使我们不能实现这所有的目标而使人

人都满意呢?你想必已经知道答案了：稀缺。

7 Society’s problem is a scarcity of resources — the things we use to make

goods and services. Economists classify resources into three categories:

labor, capital, land. Anything produced in the economy comes, ultimately,

from some combination of these resources. Think about the last lecture

you attended at your college. You were consuming a service — a college

lecture. What went into producing that service? Labor was supplied by

your instructor. Many types of capital were used as well. The physical

capital included desks, chairs, a blackboard or transparency projector, and

the classroom building itself. It also included the computer your instructor

may have used to write out his or her lecture notes.

In addition, there was human capital — your instructor’s specialized

knowledge and lecturing skills. Finally, there was land — the property on

which your classroom building sits. These very same resources, however,

could instead be used to produce other desirable things, such as primary

schools, hospitals. As a result, every society must have some method of

allocating its scarce resources — choosing which of our many competing

desires will be fulfilled and which will not be.

8. Many of the big questions of our time center on the different ways in

which resources can be allocated. The cataclysmic changes taking place in

Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union arose from a very simple fact:

the method these countries used to allocate resources was not working.

9 What does it cost you to go to the movies? If you answered seven or

eight dollars, because that is the price of a movie ticket, then you are

leaving a lot out. Most of us are used to thinking of cost as the money we

must pay for something. A Big Mac costs $2.50, a new Toyota Corolla

costs $15,000, and so on. Certainly, the money we pay for goods or

service is a part of its cost, but it is not necessarily the entire cost or even

the largest part of the cost. Economics takes a broader view of costs,

recognizing monetary as well as nonmonetary components.

10 The total cost of any action — buying a car, producing a computer, or

even reading a book — is what we must give up when we take that action.

This cost is called the opportunity cost of the action, because any

economic activity uses up scarce resources and therefore requires us to

give up the opportunity to enjoy other things for which those resources

could have been used.

11 The opportunity cost of any choice is what we give up when we make

that choice.

12 Opportunity cost is the concept of cost that should be used in decision

making.

13 Virtually every action we take as individuals uses up scarce money or

scarce time or both. Hence, every action we choose requires us to

sacrifice other enjoyable goods, services, and activities for which we

could have used our time and money.

7社会的稀缺主要是资源的稀缺。资源是指我们

用于生产产品和劳务的东西。经济学家把资源分

为三类：劳动力、资本和土地。经济社会中任何

产品和劳务的生产都需要这三种资源。比如你刚

听过的一节大学课，你正在消费一种劳务——大

学讲课。这种劳务都需要什么资源呢?既需要教

师提供劳动力，也需要各种各样的资本，如桌子、

椅子、黑板、电脑、投影仪、教室等物质资本。

它还需要人力资本，即教师的专业知识和讲课技

巧。最后，还需要教室所占用的土地。然而，这

些资源亦可用于生产其它人们想要的东西，如新

的民宅、医院、汽车厂，或是学校。因此，每一

个社会都必须采用一些分配其稀缺资源的方法

一选择满足哪些最紧迫的需求。

8 我们这个时代的许多大问题都与资源的分配

密切相关。东欧和苏联巨变的根本原因只有一个：

这些国家资源分配方式行之无效。

9 看一场电影的成本是多少?如果只因电影票

的价钱是7或8美元，你就回答说7或8美元，

那么你就大错特错了。的确，我们已经习惯了把

支付了多少钱视为购买某物的成本，如买一个巨

无霸要付2.5美元，买一辆新的丰田花冠要付l

万5千美元。可是我们为一件产品或一项劳务所

支付的钱并不是其全部成本，有的甚至只占其全

部成本的极小份额。经济学家赋予成本更广泛的

含义，涵概了钱和非钱的因素。

10 任何行为的全部成本一购买汽车、电脑，

甚至是读书一都是我们为此所必须放弃的一切。

因为任何行为都要耗掉稀缺的资源而迫使我们

放弃享受其它事物(其它事物也需要这些资源)的

机会，所以这种对其它机会的放弃被称为该行为

的机会成本。

11 任何选择的机会成本就是为其所放弃的其

它机会。

12 在决策时，人们应考虑的是机会成本。

13 几乎个人的每一个行为都要耗掉稀缺的金

钱或时间或二者兼而有之，因此我们的每一次选

择都迫使我们牺牲掉其它的产品和劳务，因为那

些也需要时间和金钱。

For example, it took a substantial amount of the authors’ time to write

this textbook. Suppose that the time devoted to writing the book could

instead have been used by one of the authors to either (1) go to law

school, (2) write a novel, or (3) start a profitable business.

14 Do all of these alternatives together make up the opportunity cost of

writing this book? Not really. The time released from not writing the book

would not be sufficient to pursue all of these activities. Only those

alternatives that would actually have been chosen should be identified as

the opportunity cost of writing the book. But which one would have been

chosen? The one that is next most attractive to the decision maker. The

opportunity cost of any choice, then, is the next most attractive

alternative that must be sacrificed. The other less valuable alternatives

would not have been chosen and therefore play no role in making a

decision.

15 To explore this notion of opportunity cost further, let’s go back to an

earlier question: What does it cost to see a movie? Suppose some friends

ask Jessica to a movie located 10 minutes from campus. To see the movie,

Jessica will use up scarce funds to buy the movie ticket and scarce time

traveling to and from the movie and sitting through it. The money she

uses for the movie ticket would otherwise have been spent on a

long-distance phone call to a friend in Italy — her next best use of the

money — and the time would otherwise have been devoted to studying

for her economics exam — her next best use of time. For Jessica, then,

the opportunity cost of the movie consists of two things: (1) a phone call

to her friend and (2) a higher score on her economics exam. Seeing the

movie will cost Jessica to sacrifice both of these valuable alternatives,

since the movie will cost Jessica both money and time.

16 Now consider Samantha, a highly paid consultant who lives in New

York City, several miles from the theater, and who has a backlog of

projects to work on. As in Jessica’s case, seeing the movie will use scarce

funds and scarce time. But for Samantha, the particulars will be different.

First, the money costs are greater. There is not only the price of the movie

ticket, but also the round-trip cab fare, which could bring the direct

money cost to $20. However, this is only a small part of Samantha’s

opportunity cost.

Let’s suppose that the time it takes Samantha to find out when and

where the movie is playing, hail a cab, travel to the movie theater, wait in

line, sit through the previews, and travel back home in four hours — not

unrealistic for seeing a movie in Manhattan.

Samantha’s next best alternative for using her time would be to work, on

her consulting projects, for which she would earn $150 per hour. In this

case, We can measure the entire opportunity cost of the movie in

monetary terms: first, the direct money costs of the movie and cab fare

($20), and second, the forgone income associated with seeing the movie

($150× 4hours =$600), for a total of $620!

例如，写这本教材需要作者很多时间，而这些时

间亦可以用于(1)攻读法律，(2)写一本小说，(3)

经商。

14 所有以上被放弃的选择机会都是写这本教

材的成本吗?非也。放弃编写教材而空出来的时

间并不足以完成以上三项可能的机会。只有那些

真的可能被选中去做的才是编写本教材的机会

成本。但是到底哪一项会被选中呢?对决策者第

二有吸引力的那一项。所以任何选择的机会成本

就是第二有吸引力的，但为了该选择而不得不放

弃的选择机会。其它的不够有吸引力的机会就被

排除掉，在决策时也不必考虑进成本内。

15 为了进一步更好的理解机会成本的概念，让

我们回到最初的问题：看一场电影的成本是多少?

假设杰西卡的朋友邀请她一起去电影院(距校园

路程约为10分钟)看一场电影。为了看电影，杰

西卡需要花费稀缺的金钱去买电影票，要花费稀

缺的时间去电影院并看电影。她买电影票的钱如

果不花的话，就可以给她意大利的一位朋友打个

长途电话，此乃该钱的第二最佳用途。她看电影

的时间如果不花费的话，她就可以用这些时间来

复习功课，为经济学考试做准备，此乃该时间的

第二最佳用途。因此，对于杰西卡而言，看一场

电影的机会成本由两部分组成：(1)打给朋友的电

话；(2)更高的经济学考试成绩。看这场电影需要

杰西卡同时放弃二者，因为看电影既要花钱，也

要花费时间。

16 现在再让我们看一下瑟曼莎看一场电影的

成本是多少。与作为学生的杰西卡不同，瑟曼莎

是一位住在纽约的有着较高收入的咨询师，她的

住所离电影院有几英里远，她的手头还积压着好

多项目要做。对于杰西卡而言，看电影要花费她

稀缺的时间和金钱，但对于瑟曼莎而言，具体的

花费则有所不同。首先，金钱成本更高：不仅需

要花钱买电影票，来去还要花钱打车，二者相加

为20美元。然而这仅是她看电影的机会成本的

一小部分而已。

我们假设她需要花时间寻找具体的播放时间和

播放地点，她要叫车并坐车去电影院，她要排队

等候，然后要看预告片，然后还要坐车回家，这

些加起来至少需要4个小时(这在曼哈顿完全是

可能的)。

瑟曼莎这4个小时的第二用途是她的咨询项目工

作(报酬是每小时150美元)。在此，我们可以以

金钱的方式来衡量一下瑟曼莎看一场电影的全

部机会成本：(1)电影票和打车的直接花费是20

美元；(2)由于看电影而放弃的收入是150美元×

4小时=600美元，二者总计高达620美元。

17 At such a high price, you might wonder why Samantha would ever

decide to see a movie. Indeed, the same reasoning applies to almost

everything Samantha does besides work. It is very expensive for

Samantha to talk to a friend on the phone, eat dinner or even sleep — all

of these activities require her to sacrifice the direct money costs plus

another $150 per hour of forgone income. Should Samantha ever choose

to pursue any of these activities?

The answer for Samantha is the same as for Jessica or anyone else: yes —

if the activity is more highly valued than what is given up. It is not hard to

imagine that, after putting in a long day at work, leisure activities would

be very important to Samantha — worth the money cost and the forgone

income required to enjoy them.

18 With an understanding of the concept of opportunity cost and how it

can differ among different individuals, you can understand some behavior

that might otherwise appear strange. For example, why do high-income

people rarely shop at discount stores like Kmart , preferring full-service

stores where the same items carry much higher price tags? It’s not that

high-income people like to pay more for their purchases, but that

discount stores are generally understaffed and crowded with customers,

so shopping there takes more time. While discount stores offer a lower

money price, they impose a higher time cost. For high-income people,

these stores are actually more costly than stores with higher price tags.

We can also understand why the most highly paid consultants,

entrepreneurs, attorneys, and surgeons often lead such frenetic lives,

doing several things at once and packing every spare minute with tasks.

Since these people can earn several hundred dollars for an hour of work,

every activity they undertake carries a correspondingly high opportunity

cost. Brushing one’s teeth can cost $10, and driving to work can cost

hundreds! By combining activities — making phone calls while driving to

work, thinking about and planning the day while in the shower, or reading

the morning paper in the elevator — the opportunity cost of these

routine activities can be minimized.

19 From an individual’s point of view, it is useful to think of opportunity

cost as arising from the scarcity of time or money; for society as a whole,

it arises from the scarcity of society’s resources. Since human wants are

unlimited, while society’s resources are not, no society can produce

enough of everything to satisfy everyone’s desires simultaneously.

Therefore, all production carries an opportunity cost. To produce and

enjoy more of one thing, we must shift resources away from producing

something else.

20 Consider a goal on which we can all agree: better health for our

citizens. What would be needed to achieve this goal? More medical

checkups for more people and greater access to top-flight medicine when

necessary. These, in turn, would require more and better trained doctors,

more hospital buildings and laboratories, and more high-tech medical

equipment such as CAT scanners and surgical lasers.

17 你或许在想为什么瑟曼莎要决定去看一场

如此“昂贵”的电影。事实上，此理可推及瑟曼莎

工作以外的一切活动：对瑟曼莎而言，和朋友煲

电话粥，出席晚宴，甚至睡觉休息都非常“昂贵”，

因为所有这些活动都需要她直接花费金钱，而且

更为重要的是需要她放弃每小时150美元的收入。

既然如此“昂贵”，瑟曼莎是否应该从事这些活

动呢?无论对于瑟曼莎，还是杰西卡或其它人答

案都是相同的：应该——如果这些活动的价值高

于放弃的。不难想象，经过了一整天辛苦的工作，

休闲娱乐对瑟曼莎来说是非常重要的——其价

值超过机会成本。

18 理解了机会成本的概念及不同人从事同一

活动的机会成本不同以后，你就能够理解某些看

似奇怪的行为。比如说，收入较高的人很少去

Kmart这样的大型连锁超市，而偏爱那些全方位

服务的商店。这并不是因为这些人愿意多付钱，

而是因为一般来讲，在大超市里服务员人数较少

(因为是自选)，而顾客人数较多(因为便宜)，所以

在那里购物需要花费更多的时间。虽然超市的商

品价格低，但时间成本高，所以对收入较高的人

来说，超市里的东西实际上要比商店里的贵。

我们也能理解为什么很多收入较高的咨询师、商

人、律师、外科医生都是工作狂——抓紧一切时

间工作，并总是同时做好几件事。因为这些人每

小时的工作都可以赚几百美元，所以他们所从事

的其它活动的机会成本相应的也比较高。刷牙的

机会成本是10美元，开车上班的机会成本要成

百上千美元。如果驾车上班时打电话，冲凉时考

虑并计划一天的事情，或是在乘电梯时读早报，

这些日常活动的机会成本就可以最小化。

19 对于个人而言，机会成本的产生是由于时间

和金钱的稀缺，对于社会整体而言，是由于社会

资源的稀缺。人的欲望是无止境的，而资源却是

有限的，任何一个社会都不可能同时生产足够的

产品和劳务来满足所有人的愿望。因此，所有的

生产都孕含着机会成本：若生产和享用一种，必

须减少或放弃生产和享用另外一种。

20 我们都有一个共同目标：为全体公民提供更

好的医疗保健。如何实现该目标?这就需要为更

多的人提供更多次数和更全面的医疗检查，更多

的在必要时使用好药的机会，这继而需要更多的

和更好的医生，更多的医院和实验室，更多的高

科技的医疗设备(如CAT扫描仪和外科激光手术)。

In order for us to produce these goods and services, we would have to

pull resources — land, labor, machinery, and raw materials — out of

producing other goods and services that we also enjoy. The opportunity

cost of improved health care, then, consists of these other goods and

services we would have to do without.

21Opportunity cost is one of the most important ideas you will encounter

in economics. The concept sheds light on virtually every problem that

economists consider, whether it be explaining the behavior of consumers

or business firms or understanding important social problems like poverty

or racial discrimination. In all of these cases, economists apply the

principle of opportunity cost.

22 The Principle of Opportunity Cost: All economic decisions made by

individuals or society are costly. The correct way to measure the cost of a

choice is its opportunity cost — that which is given up to make the choice.

英译汉

1)If your answer is "no", then congratulations—either you are well

advanced on the path of Zen self-denial, or else you are a close relative of

Ted Turner. The rest of us, however, would benefit from an increase in our

material standard of living. This simple truth is at the very core of

economics. It can be restated this way: we all face the problem of scarcity.

2)Economists also study the more subtle and indirect effects of individual

choice on our society. Will most Americans continue to live in houses,

or—like Europeans will most of us end up in apartments? Will we have an

educated and well-informed citizenry? Will museums and libraries be

forced to close down?

Will traffic congestion in our cities continue to worsen, or is there relief in

sight? These questions hinge, in large part, on the separate decisions of

millions of people. To answer them requires an understanding of how

people make choices under conditions of scarcity.

3)Opportunity cost is one of the most important ideas you will encounter

in economics. The concept sheds light on virtually every problem that

economists consider, whether it be explaining the behavior of consumers

or business firms or understanding important social problems like poverty

or racial discrimination. In all of these cases, economists apply the

principle of opportunity cost.

为了生产这些产品和劳务，我们就不得不放弃土

地、劳动力、机械、原材料等资源用于生产其它

我们也想要的产品和劳务的机会。提高医疗保健

的机会成本就是我们所放弃的其它的产品和劳

务。

21 机会成本是经济学中的一个重要概念。这一

概念有助于理解一切经济问题，包括从消费者或

公司的行为选择到贫困或种族歧视等一些重大

社会问题。在解释以上这些问题时，经济学家都

采用了机会成本的原则。

22 机会成本原则：无论是个人还是社会所做

的经济决策都是有成本的。衡量其成本的正确方

式是衡量该决策的机会成本——为选择该项所

放弃的其它选择机会。

如果你的答案是否定的，那么恭喜你：你要么早

已看破红尘，要么就是腰缠万贯。然而，我们大

多数人的答案却是肯定的，我们都希望拥有更多，

从而进一步提高物质生活水平。这一简单的真理

就是经济学的核心。我们或许可以重新表述这个

问题：我们都面临稀缺。

经济学家也研究个体的选择对社会所产生的细

微的间接的影响。多数美国人的家的归宿是独立

的房子还是像欧洲人那样的公寓?国民受教育程

度会越来越高吗?博物馆和图书馆以后都得关门

歇业吗?

城市里的交通堵塞会越来越严重还是会缓解在

即呢?这些问题在很大程度上都取决于成千上万

个个体的决定。若想回答这些问题必须明白人们

如何在稀缺的前提下进行选择。

机会成本是经济学中的一个重要概念。这一概念

有助于理解一切经济问题，包括从消费者或公司

的行为选择到贫困或种族歧视等一些重大社会

问题。在解释以上这些问题时，经济学家都采用

了机会成本的原则。