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60 Second Adventures in Economics
《60秒经济学探奇》
Number Four: The Principle of Comparative Advantage.
第四节：比较优势原理
Whether you think economies work best if they're left alone or that governments need to do something to get them working,
政府是放手还是管控对经济体更好，姑且不论政府是放手还是管控对经济体更好姑且不论
the one thing that can't be controlled is the rest of the world.
至少世界其它部分是无法控制的。
Fear of foreign competition once led countries to try and produce everything they needed,
对国外竞争的恐惧 一度让各国试图制造所有所需产品，
and impose heavy taxes to keep out foreign goods.
并征重税以阻止外国产品进口。
However, economist David Ricardo showed that international trade could actually make everyone better off,
但是，经济学家大卫·李嘉图指出国际贸易能让所有人都更富裕，
bringing in one of the first great economic models.
他是最初提出伟大经济学模型的人之一，
He pointed out that, even if a country can produce pretty much everything at the lowest possible cost,
他指出就算一个国家能以尽可能低的成本生产几乎所有东西，
with what economists call an 'absolute advantage', it's still better to focus on the products it can make most efficiently that
具有经济学家所说的“绝对优势”，能集中精力于生产效率最高的产品仍然会更好，
sacrifice the least amount of other goods and let the rest of the world do the same.
牺牲其它产品，让世界其它国家也都这样做。
By specialising, they can then export these surpluses to each other and both end up better off.
通过专门化，各国能将剩余出口给别国，这样每个国家都能受益。
This is the principle of comparative advantage and it has persuaded many countries to sign up to free-trade agreements,
这就是比较优势原理，这说服了很多国家签署自由贸易协议，
but unfortunately, it can take a long time for countries to trade their way to prosperity.
但很不幸，需要很长时间，才能让各国都通过贸易实现繁荣。
And because it's now much easier to move to where the money is it's increasingly not only goods that cross borders,
而且因为现在更容易迁移到钱多的地方，不仅商品可以跨越国界，
but people which has somewhat uprooted Ricardo's theory.
人也可以，这在某种程度上连根拔起了李嘉图的理论。
