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And this brings me to my modest proposal. I think that bad PowerPoint presentations are a serious threat to the global economy.
下面我就谈谈我的小小建议。我认为，用幻灯片做的那些糟糕的报告是全球经济的严重威胁。
Now it does depend on how you measure it, of course, but one estimate has put the drain at 250 million dollars per day.
当然，这要取决于你如何衡量这件事，但是一种估算是每天损失两亿五千万美元。
Now that assumes half-hour presentations for an average audience of four people with salaries of 35,000 dollars,
假设平均每四个人听半小时的报告，四人年薪共三万五千美元，
and it conservatively assumes that about a quarter of the presentations are a complete waste of time,
保守估计四分之一的报告纯属浪费时间，
and given that there are some apparently 30 million PowerPoint presentations created every day,
而且如果每天约有三千万个用幻灯片做的报告，
that would indeed add up to an annual waste of 100 billion dollars.
那么，年损失金额将高达一千亿美元。
Of course, that's just the time we're losing sitting through presentations.
当然，这还只是我们浪费的时间，全程听完报告的时间。
There are other costs, because PowerPoint is a tool, and like any tool, it can and will be abused.
还有其他费用，因为幻灯片是一个工具，和其他工具一样，幻灯片可以也将会被人滥用。
To borrow a concept from my country's CIA, it helps you to soften up your audience.
借用美国中央情报局的话说，这有助于软化你的观众。
It distracts them with pretty pictures, irrelevant data.
炫丽的图片，无关紧要的数据，让他们眼花缭乱。
It allows you to create the illusion of competence, the illusion of simplicity, and most destructively, the illusion of understanding.
有助于创造称职的假象，简明的假象，最要命地，理解的假象。
So now my country is 15 trillion dollars in debt. Our leaders are working tirelessly to try and find ways to save money.
现在美国欠有十五万亿债务。我们的领导人们正不辞辛劳地寻求省钱之道。
One idea is to drastically reduce public support for the arts.
一种办法是大规模削减对艺术的公共支持。
For example, our National Endowment for the Arts, with its $150 million budget,
比如，美国艺术捐赠基金会的预算为一亿五千万美元，
slashing that program would immediately reduce the national debt by about one one-thousandth of a percent.
砍掉这一项目将为国债削减约十万分之一。
One certainly can't argue with those numbers.
我们当然不能和这些数字争论。
However, once we eliminate public funding for the arts, there will be some drawbacks.
然而，一旦我们消除给艺术的资金支持，就会出现一些弊端。
The artists on the street will swell the ranks of the unemployed.
街上流浪的艺术家会使失业率猛增。
Many will turn to drug abuse and prostitution, and that will inevitably lower property values in urban neighborhoods.
很多人转而会去吸毒、卖淫，这将不可避免地降低城区的房屋价值。
All of this could wipe out the savings we're hoping to make in the first place.
所有这些都将首先导致我们的储蓄挥霍殆尽。
