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第17章 政府价格管制

（接前面部分）

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These are the consequences of what might be described as perfect,” long-continued, and “nonpolitical” price control. As was so amply demonstrated in one country after another, particularly in Europe during and after World War II, some of the more fantastic errors of the bureaucrats were mitigated by the black market. In some countries the black market kept growing at the expense of the legally recognized fixed-price market until the former became, in effect, the market. By nominally keeping the price ceilings, however, the politicians in power tried to show that their hearts, if not their enforcement squads, were in the right place.

这就是所谓“完美的”、长效和“无关政治的”价格控制的后果。 政府管制酿成的一些大错，有一部分被黑市所化解。这个现象在一个又一个国家得到证实，在二战期间以及战后的欧洲尤其如此。在有些国家，黑市的成长壮大是以破坏法定限价市场来实现的，直至前者成为事实上的市场。然而，当权的政客们仍然力图通过维持形同虚设的法定价格来表明，即便其政策实施者们有过失，他们的立意是完全正确的。

Because the black market, however, finally supplanted the legal price-ceiling market, it must not be supposed that no harm was done. The harm was both economic and moral. During the transition period the large, long-established firms, with a heavy capital investment and a great dependence upon the retention of public good-will, are forced to restrict or discontinue production. Their place is taken by fly-by-night concerns with little capital and little accumulated experience in production. These new firms are inefficient compared with those they displace; they turn out inferior and dishonest goods at much higher production costs than the older concerns would have required for continuing to turn out their former goods. A premium is put on dishonesty. The new firms owe their very existence or growth to the fact that they are willing to violate the law; their customers conspire with them; and as a natural consequence demoralization spreads into all business practices.

不过，并不因为黑市最终取代了法定限价市场，我们就可以认为这个过程没有任何伤害。这伤害既有经济上的，也有道德上的。一些大型的老牌企业，过去靠的是雄厚的资本，并且在很大程度上依赖于他们在公众中的信誉，而在市场转型期，它们被迫限制生产或中断生产。取而代之的，是那些既无资本又无生产经验的皮包公司。这些新公司跟那些被取代的老牌企业相比效率低下，它们以远远高于先前企业用来继续生产其产品所需的生产成本，产出质量低劣、名不副实的商品。这是对不诚实的一种奖励。这些新公司之所以能够生存和发展，是靠钻法律空子，而顾客又与它们沆瀣一气。自然而然，道德败坏深入到经济生活的每一个角落。

It is seldom, moreover, that any honest effort is made by the price-fixing authorities merely to preserve the level of prices existing when their efforts began. They declare that their intention is to “hold the line.” Soon, however, under the guise of “correcting inequities” or “social in justices,” they begin a discriminatory price-fixing which gives most to those groups that are politically powerful and least to other groups.

此外，政府价格管理部门很少真正做出努力，去维持他们一开始急吼吼要维持的现行价格水平。他们声称旨在努力“保持价格不变”。然而，他们很快就会以“纠正不公平”，或者“社会公正”为借口，着手实施歧视性的价格管制政策，结果是政治力量强大的群体得到政策倾斜最多，其他的群体则得不到政策照顾。

As political power today is most commonly measured by votes, the groups that the authorities most often attempt to favor are workers and farmers. At first it is contended that wages and living costs are not connected; that wages can easily be lifted without lifting prices. When it becomes obvious that wages can be raised only at the expense of profits, the bureaucrats begin to argue that profits were already too high anyway, and that lifting wages and holding prices will still permit a “fair profit.” As there is no such thing as a uniform rate of profit, as profits differ with each concern, the result of this policy is to drive the least profitable concerns out of business altogether, and to discourage or stop the production of certain items. This means unemployment, a shrinkage in production and a decline in living standards.

由于当今政治力量大抵以选票来衡量，因此当局总是力求讨好工人和农民。起初，人们不太能把工资和生活费用关联起来，认为可以单纯地涨工资而不涨价。后来，当人们认识到涨工资势必以牺牲利润为代价时，官僚们则争辩说，反正利润本来都高，即便涨工资而价格不变，生产者仍可以获得“公平的利润”。由于并不存在一个一致的利润率，而企业的利润又各不相同，所以，对利润一刀切的做法势必将赢利能力最差的公司一举淘汰出局，进而导致若干商品的产量减少或停产。这就意味着失业、生产萎缩、生活水平下降。

（未完待续）

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