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中英对照文本 Do you have a license?! You better. Government often demands you get a license before you're allowed to work. People think this is a good idea. We license drivers, we license dogs, People think it makes us safer. But licenses also do something bad. 主持人：你有执照吗？你最好有。政府一般要求你取到执照才允许你工作。人们认为这是个好主意。我们发驾驶执照，我们发养狗执照，人们认为这令我们更安全。但执照同样有些坏处。 If people want to work, let them work. 麦迪森·鲁特：假如人们想工作，那就让他们工作。 11-year old Madison Root was told she couldn’t work because she didn’t have a license. She wanted money for braces, so she tried selling mistletoe. Here she is in a tree, picking it. But when she went to sell it at this outdoor market, police told her “Stop! That’s illegal!” They told her she could beg, but can't sell anything. Her father sent us this video. 主持人：11 岁的麦迪森·鲁特被告知她不能工作，因为她没有执照。她想挣钱戴牙套，于是她试着卖槲寄生。这是她在树上采摘槲寄生。但当她去露天市场售卖时，警察告诉她「住手！这是违法的！」他们告诉她尽管恳求，但是什么都不能卖。她父亲给我们发来这支视频。 I was amazed that people cannot work hard, but they can be just lazy. 麦迪森·鲁特：我很惊讶，人们不能勤奋工作，但他们可以懒惰。 I assume that’s not exactly what the cops meant, but the fact is: All over America, people want to work, but can't because it’s so hard to get proper licenses. 主持人：我猜测那不是警察的想法，但事实是：在美国各地，人们想工作却不能，因为取得正式执照太难了。 In the 1950s, well only about 1 in 20 Americans needed the government’s blessing to do their job. Today that number is more than 1 in 3. Institute for Justice：在 1950 年代，20 个美国人中只有 1 人需要政府恩准才能工作。今天这个数字已经超过三分之一。 This new book, Bottleneckers, reveals how licensing rules allow older businesses to profit by keeping newcomers out. 主持人：这本新书，Bottleneckers 展示了执照规定如何使得旧企业通过阻止新企业进入而获利。 These are people who want to erect barriers, who want to put in place bottlenecks because they want to keep competitors out. Bottleneckers 作者：这些人都想要建立壁垒，他们想设置瓶颈，因为他们想要阻止竞争对手进入。 It's kind of like what happens on a highway, if you close a lane. The established, existing businesses are like these motorcycles. Licenses don’t slow them down. During my consumer report days, I assumed licenses protected us from scams like these: 主持人：有点像高速路上的情况，假如你关闭一条道。现有的老牌企业就像是这些摩托车，执照不会拖慢它们。在我做消费者报告的日子中，我以为执照避免我们陷入这样的骗局： We are not ripping people off. 受访者1：我们没有欺骗顾客。 But licensing doesn’t stop that. Georgia funeral director, who was pitching dead bodies out in the woods behind his funeral establishment. He was licensed. Bernie Madoff was licensed. Teachers in public schools who have sex with their students. Licensed. Licensing doesn’t stop that. Bottleneckers 作者：但执照并未阻止诈骗。乔治亚的殡仪馆馆长把遗体扔在殡仪馆外面的树林里。他是有执照的。伯尼·麦道夫有执照。公立学校里与学生发生性行为的教师有执照。执照并没有阻止这些事发生。 What licensing does do, is crush new entrepreneurs. Want to braid peoples hair? This woman was told she couldn’t do it legally unless she spent thousands of hours to get a cosmetology license. She begged the government, 'Just let me braid!' 主持人：执照的功能是挤压新企业家。想替人编辫子嘛？这位女士被告知她不能合法从事该活动，除非她花上千个小时拿到美容执照。她恳求政府：「就让我编辫子吧！」 I was making these phone calls to the board of cosmetology saying I don't want to do cosmetology. All I want to do is braid hair. 受访者2：我打电话给美容协会说我不想做美容业。我就只想编辫子而已。 No! Not without our license, said the cosmetology board. 主持人：不行！没有我们的执照就不行，美容委员会说。 These are people who have a clear conflict of interest. Bottleneckers 作者：这些都是有明显利益冲突的人。 Of course they do. She wants to compete with them. 主持人：他们当然有了。她想与他们竞争。 Cosmetologists got together and they went to the legislature and they lobbied for the creation of a license. Bottleneckers 作者：美容师们聚集起来，他们前往立法部门游说建立执照许可制。 Makes me wonder, how could I get rid of my competition? I’m annoyed by all these TV channels. I’d like to limit that. 主持人：让我好奇，我该如何摆脱我的竞争者呢？这些电视频道让我烦躁。我想限制它们。 Yes, I’m sure. So what you need to do John is you need to go to government and ask for special protection. You need to claim that there is some public interest, some way that the public is going to be protected by limiting the number of providers. Bottleneckers 作者：对，你当然想。那么你需要做的是去找政府，要求特别保护。你需要声称其中存在某些公共利益，要想办法通过限制供应者数量来保护公众。 And that actually happened in America. When I started in TV, most viewers just had ABC, CBS, NBC, and boring public television. People could have had many more channels, cable TV technology was available. But lobbyists for my employer argued: “No! That will hurt the poor. They need broadcast TV. They can’t afford cable. So the FCC limited cable TV for years. And that helped me make more money. 主持人：这的确在美国发生过。我刚进入电视行业时，多数观众只有 ABC、CBS、NBC 和一些无聊的公共电视频道。人们原本可以有很多频道，有线电视技术已经出现了。但我东家雇的说客辩解：「不！那会伤害到穷人。他们需要广播电视。他们负担不起有线电视。」于是美国联邦通信委员会限制了多年的有线电视。而这帮助我赚到了更多钱。 Certainly it does, that’s the effect of licensing. That is, the people who are in the industry have the ability to artificially inflate prices and their wages as a result and consumers are worse off. Bottleneckers 作者：毫无疑问会，这就是执照的作用。结果是行业内人士有能力人为抬高价格及他们的工资，而消费者处境更差了。 |
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