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第17章 政府价格管制

（接前面部分）

5

What lies at the base of the whole effort to fix maximum prices? There is first of all a misunderstanding of what it is that has been causing prices to rise. The real cause is either a scarcity of goods or a surplus of money. Legal price ceilings cannot cure either. In fact, as we have just seen, they merely intensify the shortage of goods. What to do about the surplus of money will be discussed in a later chapter. But one of the errors that lie behind the drive for price-fixing is the chief subject of this book. Just as the endless plans for raising prices of favored commodities are the result of thinking of the interests only of the producers immediately concerned, and forgetting the interests of consumers, so the plans for holding down prices by legal edict are the result of thinking of the short-run interests of people only as consumers and forgetting their interests as producers. And the political support for such policies springs from a similar confusion in the public mind. People do not want to pay more for milk, butter, shoes, furniture, rent, theater tickets or diamonds. Whenever any of these items rises above its previous level the consumer becomes indignant, and feels that he is being rooked.

费尽折腾去规定最高价格，其根本原因是什么呢？首先，是什么致使价格上涨，人们在这一点上存在误解。真正的原因是商品匮乏或货币过剩。法定价格上限根本无法解决这两方面的问题。事实上，正如我们所见，它们仅仅加剧了商品的短缺。至于货币过剩如何应对，我们会在后面章节讨论。不过，隐藏在限价政策背后的谬误之一，倒是本书的主题。正如无数计划旨在人为抬高某些商品的价格，是政府一心顾及生产者的眼前利益而没有考虑消费者利益的结果，同样，通过法令来压低价格的那些计划，是政府一心顾及公众作为消费者的眼前利益，而没有考虑他们作为生产者的利益的结果。这类政策所得的政治支持，产生自公众思想中类似的模糊观念。人们决不愿花更多的钱去购买牛奶、黄油、鞋子、家具、戏票、钻石，去支付租金。任何时候，任何一样这些商品的价格高于先前的价位，消费者就开始忿忿，感觉遭人敲竹杠。

The only exception is the item he makes himself: here he understands and appreciates the reason for the rise. But he is always likely to regard his own business as in some way an exception. “Now my own business,” he will say, “is peculiar, and the public does not understand it. Labor costs have gone up; raw material prices have gone up; this or that raw material is no longer being imported, and must be made at a higher cost at home. Moreover, the demand for the product has increased, and the business should be allowed to charge the prices necessary to encourage its expansion to supply this demand.” And so on. Everyone as consumer buys a hundred different products; as producer he makes, usually, only one. He can see the inequity in holding down the price of that. And just as each manufacturer wants a higher price for his particular product, so each worker wants a higher wage or salary. Each can see as producer that price control is restricting production in his line. But nearly everyone refuses to generalize this observation, for it means that he will have to pay more for the products of others.

惟一的例外，是他自己生产的商品：此刻，他完全理解并赞成提价的理由。不过，他总容易把自己的行业看作是某种例外。“我干的这行”，他会这样说，“现在的情况相当特殊，一般人是不了解的。人工成本在涨；原材料价格也在涨；这种那种原材料已经不再允许进口，必须以较高的成本在国内制造。此外，市场对本行产品的需求增加了，应该允许本行产品做必要的提价，从而鼓励供给以满足需求。”等等。每个人作为消费者时，都会买很多种不同的商品；而作为生产者时，通常只生产一种产品。他看得出，压低自己的产品的价格是不公平的。正如每家制造商都希望他自己的产品卖到更高的价格，每个工人都想要更高的工资或薪金。作为生产者时，每个人都看得出价格管制限制了本行的生产。但是，几乎每个人都不愿将观察到的这个事实推己及人，因为这意味着他会付更更高的的价钱去买别人的产品。

Each one of us, in brief, has a multiple economic personality. Each one of us is producer, taxpayer, consumer. The policies he advocates depend upon the particular aspect under which he thinks of himself at the moment. For he is sometimes Dr. Jekyll and sometimes Mr. Hyde. As a producer he wants inflation (thinking chiefly of his own services or product); as a consumer he wants price ceilings (thinking chiefly of what he has to pay for the products of others). As a consumer he may advocate or acquiesce in subsidies; as a taxpayer he will resent paying them. Each person is likely to think that he can so manage the political forces that he can benefit from a rise for his own product (while his raw material costs are legally held down) and at the same time benefit as a consumer from price control. But the overwhelming majority will be deceiving themselves. For not only must there be at least as much loss as gain from this political manipulation of prices; there must be a great deal more loss than gain, because price-fixing discourages and disrupts employment and production.

简单地说，我们每个人都具备多重经济角色。每个人都是生产者、纳税人，消费者。一个人支持何种政策，取决于他当时从何种身份去为自身利益作考虑。犹如电影《化身博士》（Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde），他有时处于这种身份、有时处于那种身份。作为生产者时，他便希望通货膨胀（这时主要顾及自己提供的服务或产品）；作为消费者时，他便希望政府限价（这时主要顾及他不得不掏钱买别人的产品）。作为消费者，他可能拥护或者默许政府实施补贴；而作为纳税人，他会愤慨为此埋单。每个人都很可能认为他能应付各种政治力量，以便能从他自己产出的商品涨价中获利（同时还要他的原材料价格被合法的压低），同时他还可以以消费者的身份受惠于价格管制。但是绝大多数的人都在自欺欺人——利用政治力量操纵价格，注定得不偿失；因为管制价格不可避免地会限制和破坏就业与生产。

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