引言:关于市场的道德性,以及市场与社会公共事务的界限
现象:Today, almost everything is up for sale.
本质:Over the past three de cades, markets— and market values— have come to govern our lives as never before.
金融危机打破了人们对市场的信心,由此,The era of market triumphalism has come to an end.
一种说法是,市场的失控是由于人们的greed心理。得出解决办法-enact sensible regulations to prevent a similar crisis from happening again.
但作者则认为 the view is partial,something bigger is at stake. It was the expansion of markets,and of market values, into spheres of life where they don’t belong.
要改变现状,We need a public debate about what it means to keep markets in their place.we need to think through the moral limits of markets. We need to ask whether there are some things money should not buy.
更深一步分析:The reach of markets, and market- oriented thinking, into aspects of life traditionally governed by nonmarket norms is one of the most significant developments of our time.
These uses of markets to allocate health, education, public safety, national security, criminal justice, environmental protection, recreation, procreation, and other social goods were for the most part unheard of thirty years ago. Today, we take them largely for granted.
现象出现,但是不一定都有探讨的价值,Why worry that we are moving toward a society in which everything is up for sale?
For two reasons: one is about inequality; the other is about corruption.
1. Where all good things are bought and sold, having money makes all the difference in the world. # the commodification of everything使得钱的价值被无限放大
导致 ①The gap between rich and poor widened 贫富差距扩大
②has sharpened the sting of inequality 没有钱的人感受到的痛苦也被放大
only singular
■the feeling of being upset by something痛苦;刺痛,刺伤;刺激
•the sting of defeat失败的痛苦
最终导致社会财富分配问题突出:The distribution of income and wealth looms larger and larger.
loom large 黑影变大,步步逼近
■If something looms large, it becomes very important and often causes worry显得突出;变得严重
•The issue of pay will loom large at this Easter's teacher conference.工资问题将在今年复活节的教师大会上突显出来。
2.Putting a price on the good things in life can corrupt them.
why:Markets leave their mark. Sometimes, market values crowd out nonmarket values worth caring about.
但是,既然市场伦理排挤了社会核心价值观,而我们又发现这是存在问题的,如上。所以我们想要回归一种理想的秩序,但问题是people disagree about what values are worth caring about, and why.
所以我们要先界定what values should govern the various domains of social and civic life.——这也是本书的subject。
作者先给出了一个答案:想想有什么是money can't buy
examples:人,公民义务...
These examples illustrate a broader point: some of the good things in life are corrupted or degraded if turned into commodities.
So to decide where the market belongs, and where it should be kept at a distance, we have to decide how to value the goods in question— health, education, family life, nature, art, civic duties, and so on.
这是个需要debate的问题,but this is a debate we didn’t have during the era of market triumphalism. As a result, without quite realizing it, without ever deciding to do so, we drifted from having a market economy to being a market society.
#揭示了市场至上的深层原因:关于health, education, family life, nature, art, civic duties, and so on.这些我们真正关心的,不能单纯用钱来衡量的东西,因为缺少debate,所以不知道how to value them properly 以至于使他们沾上了金钱的腐朽,整个社会变成 a market society
两者:The difference is this: A market economy is a tool— a valuable and effective tool— for or ga niz ing productive activity. A market society is a way of life in which market values seep into every aspect of human endeavor.
现在我们开始rethink the role and reach of markets
Even if you agree that we need to grapple with big questions about the morality of markets, you might doubt that our public discourse is up to the task. It’s a legitimate worry.
le∙git∙im∙ate
◙adj.
1. for which there is a fair and acceptable reason
• 正当合理的;合情合理的
【SYN】valid,justifiable:
»a legitimate grievance
合乎情理的抱怨
»It seemed a perfectly legitimate question.
这似乎是完全合乎情理的问题。
»Politicians are legitimate targets for satire.
政治家理所当然是讽刺的对象。
2. allowed and acceptable according to the law
• 合法的;法律认可的;法定的
【SYN】legal:
»the legitimate government of the country
这个国家的合法政府
»Is his business strictly legitimate?
他的生意是否绝对合法?
We should begin by acknowledging two daunting obstacles:.
一、One is the persisting power and prestige of market thinking 这是个有些令人困惑的问题。
举例:At the time, the financial crisis of 2008 was widely seen as a moral verdict on the uncritical embrace of markets that had prevailed, across the political spectrum, for three decades,which prompts a reconsideration of markets. Now, surely, would be a time of moral reckoning, a season of sober second thoughts about the market faith. But things haven’t turned out that way.The spectacular failure of fi nancial markets did little to dampen the faith in markets generally.
Instead, its most notable political consequence in the United States was the rise of the Tea Party movement, whose hostility to government and embrace of free markets would have made Ronald Reagan blush.
both the Tea Party and Occupy Wall Street activists gave voice to populist outrage against the bailout.
政治上大家很冲动,但没人去想这是市场出现了问题。Notwithstanding these voices of protest, serious debate about the role and reach of markets remains largely absent from our political life.
政治家也有责任 Disillusion with politics has deepened as citizens grow frustrated with a po liti cal system unable to act for the public good, or to address the questions that matter most.
不过作者还是认为a reasoned public debate about such controversial moral questions is possible, and that it would invigorate our public life.
二、This parlous(rancor and emptiness) state of public discourse.
一些人认为:Some see in our rancorous politics a surfeit of moral conviction.
But that's not how the author see it, he believes the problem with our politics is not too much moral argument but too little.
Our politics is overheated because it is mostly vacant, empty of moral and spiritual content. 这里提出两个论点:政治火药味过浓;政治缺少精神文明建设和道德的元素,后者导致前者发生。
The moral vacancy of contemporary politics has a number of sources.
①One is the attempt to banish notions of the good life from public discourse in hopes of avoiding sectarian strife纠纷,
sectarian
UK[sek'teə.ri.ən]US[-'ter.i-]mainlydisapproving
■(a person) strongly supporting a particular religious group, especially in such a way as not to be willing to accept other beliefs(人)派系的,教派性的,(尤指)排斥其他信仰的 ;有门户之见的
•a sectarian murder教派谋杀
•He called on terrorists on both sides of the sectarian divide to end the cycle of violence.他呼吁存在派系分歧的双方恐怖分子结束你来我往的暴力行为。
②In its own way, market reasoning also empties public life of moral argument.
什么是market reasoning?
——They don’t discriminate between admirable preferences and base ones.
base adj not adhering to ethical or moral principles
base and unpatriotic motives;a base, degrading way of life
Synonyms:immoral contrary to conscience or morality or law
为什么有吸引力?This nonjudgmental stance toward values lies at the heart of market reasoning and explains much of its appeal.
总结下来Our reluctance to engage in moral and spiritual argument, together with our embrace of markets, has exacted a heavy price: it has drained public discourse of moral and civic energy, and contributed to the technocratic, managerial politics that afflicts many societies today.
exact
to make sth bad happen to sb
• 迫使;强迫;强求:
»Stress can exact a high price from workers(= can affect them badly). 压力可能迫使工人付出昂贵的代价。
即使debate出现,限制是存在的 It would be folly to expect that a morally more robust public discourse, even at its best, would lead to agreement on every contested question. But it would make for a healthier public life.
总结:我们面临的挑战不在于华尔街,而是从市场出发,从公民自身出发,从公民社会和市场的关系出发。
But the moral and political challenge we face today is more pervasive and more mundane— to rethink the role and reach of markets in our social practices, human relationships, and everyday lives.
public discourse公共话语
▪rancour
formal a feeling of anger and hatred towards someone who you cannot forgive because they harmed you in the past:
Even though he had lost the court case, he had shown no rancour.
reach
››OF POWER /INFLUENCE权力;影响
2.[sing., U]the limit to which sb / sth has the power or influence to do sth
• 波及范围;影响范围:
»Such matters are beyond the reach of the law.
这样的事情不受法律的保护。
»Victory is now out of her reach.
胜利现在对于她来说遥不可及。
»The basic model is priced well within the reach of most people.
基本款式的定价大多数人都完全负担得起。
»The company has now overtaken IBM in terms of size and reach.
在规模和影响范围上,这家公司已经超越了国际商用机器。
ˌloom ˈlarge idiom
to be worrying or frightening and seem hard to avoid
•The prospect of war loomed large.