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找出最餓的那個(gè)人的雙語(yǔ)新聞
THE HUNGRY MAN
Dear Economist,
I have a question for you. You have a piece of bread and you are full enough to give it to someone else. In front of you, 10 guys are waiting for your charity. You can say only one sentence to them.
But with only this one sentence, you need to find out who is the most hungry guy. What are you going to say?
Myeong Hyeon, via e-mail
Dear Myeong Hyeon,
This is an interesting poser, although in fact I would run a mile if confronted by 10 hungry guys clamouring for my focaccia. That is, perhaps, quibbling, but my main complaint about your question is more serious.
Perhaps you believe that there is little difference between economics and the parlour games of logicians, but in this particular case there is all the difference in the world.
A basic proposition of economics is that talk is cheap. Nothing these worthy fellows could say conveys any information to me. A crook can tell the same sob story as the most desperate beggar.
One possibility, then, is that I could carry out intrusive background checks on these characters. However, that is expensive and tiresome for all concerned - and since the largest providers of pieces of bread are governments, there are concerns over abuses of information, too.
Alternatively, and more elegantly, I could hand over bread only to those people who give me a signal that a well-fed con man would not be willing to give. For example, I could demand that the recipient of the bread first wallow in a muddy puddle. But this, like many signals, is wasteful. Better if the signal was also socially productive, so that I could hand out bread in exchange for useful work. We call this arrangement “getting a job”.
找出最餓的那個(gè)人
親愛(ài)的經(jīng)濟(jì)學(xué)家，
我有一個(gè)問(wèn)題問(wèn)你。你有一片面包，但你已經(jīng)吃飽了，于是決定把它送給別人。在你面前，有10個(gè)人等著你的施舍。你只能對(duì)他們說(shuō)一句話。
但要通過(guò)一句話，你必須找出誰(shuí)是最餓的那個(gè)人。你會(huì)說(shuō)什么呢?
Myeong Hyeon，通過(guò)電子郵件
親愛(ài)的Myeong Hyeon，
這是一個(gè)有趣的難題，但事實(shí)上，如果我碰到10個(gè)饑餓的人嚷著要我的面包，我可能早就跑到一英里以外去了。這可能是在詭辯，但對(duì)于你的問(wèn)題，我的主要不滿則更為嚴(yán)肅。
可能你相信，經(jīng)濟(jì)學(xué)和邏輯學(xué)家的室內(nèi)游戲幾乎沒(méi)有區(qū)別，但在這個(gè)特殊的案例中，則存在天壤之別。
經(jīng)濟(jì)學(xué)的一個(gè)基本命題是，言語(yǔ)是廉價(jià)的。這些需要面包的人無(wú)論說(shuō)什么都不能向我傳遞任何信息。一個(gè)騙子講述的故事可以和最絕望的乞丐一樣催人淚下的故事。
那么，一個(gè)可能性就是，我可以對(duì)這些人的背景進(jìn)行深入調(diào)查。然而，調(diào)查費(fèi)用巨大，而且令所有各方都感到疲憊——由于面包的最大提供者是政府，因此這里還存在信息濫用的問(wèn)題。
換種做法(這種做法也更紳士一些)，如果有人會(huì)向我發(fā)出衣食無(wú)憂的騙子不愿發(fā)出的信號(hào)，我可以把面包只交給這些人。例如，我可以要求面包接受者先在泥塘里打滾。但和許多其它信號(hào)一樣，這也是種浪費(fèi)。更好的辦法是讓發(fā)出的信號(hào)還能帶來(lái)社會(huì)生產(chǎn)力，這樣我就可以拿面包交換有用的勞動(dòng)。我們將這種安排稱(chēng)作“得到工作”。
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