The Basic Economic Problem
IGCSE Economics Topic 1 9:14 English narration · English + 中文 subtitles burned in
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Transcript
You have ten dollars.
你有十美元。
In front of you there is a book you want and a game you want.
你面前有一本你想要的书，还有一个你想要的游戏。
You want both. You can only have one.
两个你都想要， 但你只能拿一个。
So you pick the book — and the moment you do, the game is gone.
于是你选了书——就在你选的那一刻，游戏没有了。
The real cost of your book is not the ten dollars. It is the game you did not get.
你这本书的真实代价不是那十美元，而是你没有得到的那个游戏。
That one idea sits under every single thing in this course.
这一个想法，是这门课里每一件事的根基。
Welcome to Topic One.
欢迎来到第一单元。
Economics studies how people use resources to meet their needs and wants.
经济学研究人们如何使用资源来满足需要和欲望。
Two facts start everything.
一切都从两个事实开始。
First, resources are finite — there is only a limited amount of land, workers, machines and time.
第一，资源是有限的——土地、工人、机器和时间的数量都有限。
Second, people's wants are unlimited — we always want more, and better.
第二，人的欲望是无限的——我们总想要更多、更好的东西。
That gap has a name. Resources are scarce, and we call the problem scarcity.
这个差距有一个名字： 资源是稀缺的，我们把这个问题叫做稀缺性。
Scarcity forces choice, and every choice has an opportunity cost.
稀缺迫使人们做选择， 而每一个选择都有机会成本。
Learn that chain and half of Topic One is done.
记住这条链条，第一单元就完成了一半。
We use resources to make two things.
我们用资源生产两样东西。
Goods are things you can touch, like food and phones. Services are jobs done for you, like a haircut or a bus ride. Because resources are scarce, nobody can have everything, so everybody has to choose.
物品是你能摸得到的东西，比如食物和手机； 服务是别人替你做的事，比如理发或者坐公交。
Four groups do the choosing, and the exam names them. Consumers choose what to buy.
因为资源稀缺，没有人能拥有一切， 所以每个人都必须选择。
Workers choose which job to do. Producers, also called firms, choose what to produce. A government chooses what to provide and how to spend public money.
做选择的有四类群体，考试会点名它们： 消费者选择买什么；工人选择做哪份工作；生产者，也叫企业，选择生产什么； 政府选择提供什么、以及公共资金怎么花。
Whenever a question asks who is affected, answer with these four.
只要题目问"谁受到影响"，就用这四类来回答。
Now a distinction that catches people out.
接下来是一个常常让人失分的区分。
Most things are economic goods.
大多数东西是经济物品。
They are scarce, so making one or using one means giving something else up.
它们是稀缺的， 所以生产一个或使用一个，就意味着要放弃别的东西。
Every economic good has an opportunity cost.
每一件经济物品都有机会成本。
A free good is different. It is not scarce at all — there is enough for everyone and it costs nothing to use.
免费物品不一样：它根本不稀缺——数量足够所有人用，而且使用它不花任何代价。
The air you breathe is a free good. Sunlight is a free good.
你呼吸的空气是免费物品，阳光也是免费物品。
A free good has no opportunity cost.
免费物品没有机会成本。
And here is the trap: a free sample or a free gift is not a free good. Resources were used to make it, so it is still an economic good.
这里有个陷阱：商店里的"免费样品"或"免费赠品"不是免费物品， 因为制造它用掉了资源，所以它仍然是经济物品。
Free in a shop and free in economics are two different words.
商店里的"免费"和经济学里的"免费"是两个不同的词。
To make goods and services, firms use four types of resource.
为了生产物品和服务，企业使用四类资源。
We call them the factors of production, and you must be able to list all four with an example of each.
我们把它们叫做生产要素， 你必须能把四个都列出来，并各举一个例子。
Land is natural resources — fields, water, oil, forests.
土地是自然资源——农田、水、石油、森林。
Labour is human work — a teacher, a builder, a nurse.
劳动是人的工作——一位老师、一个建筑工人、一名护士。
Capital is man-made things used to produce other things — machines, tools, factories.
资本是人造的、用来生产其他东西的物品——机器、工具、工厂。
Notice that: in economics, capital means equipment, not money.
注意这一点：在经济学里，资本指的是设备，不是钱。
And enterprise is organising the other three and taking the risk.
而企业家才能，就是把另外三种要素组织起来并承担风险。
The person who does that is the entrepreneur.
做这件事的人叫企业家。
They bring land, labour and capital together and risk their own money to start the business.
他们把土地、劳动和资本组合到一起，并拿自己的钱冒险去创办企业。
Each factor earns a reward — the income it gets for being used — and these four pairs are pure marks. Land earns rent.
每一种要素都会获得一份报酬——也就是它被使用时得到的收入——这四对是稳稳的分数。
Labour earns wages. Capital earns interest. Enterprise earns profit.
土地得到地租，劳动得到工资，资本得到利息，企业家才能得到利润。
Learn these four pairs as pairs, in that order, and never swap them.
把这四对当作成对的东西按顺序记住，永远不要弄混。
The most common mistake is giving labour profit.
最常见的错误是把利润给了劳动。
Profit belongs to enterprise, because enterprise is the one carrying the risk.
利润属于企业家才能，因为承担风险的是企业家。
A worker is paid whether the business succeeds or not; an entrepreneur is not.
工人不管生意成不成功都拿工资，企业家却不是这样。
Three more things the exam asks about factors.
关于生产要素，考试还会问三件事。
Mobility means how easily a factor can move to a different use or a different place.
流动性指的是一种要素多容易转到别的用途或别的地方。
A worker with many skills can change jobs easily, so that labour is mobile. A worker with only one skill, or a factory that cannot be moved, is much less mobile. Quantity can rise or fall.
一个掌握多种技能的工人可以轻松换工作，所以这样的劳动流动性高； 而只会一种技能的工人，或者搬不走的工厂，流动性就低得多。
The amount of labour grows if the birth rate rises, or if people move into the country to work. Land can be lost to the sea, or gained by draining it. Quality can rise too.
数量可以增加也可以减少：如果出生率上升，或者有人移入这个国家工作，劳动的数量就会增加； 土地可能被海水淹没，也可能通过围海造田而增加。
Training and education make labour better; new technology makes capital better.
质量也可以提高：培训和教育让劳动更好，新技术让资本更好。
Higher quality means each factor produces more — and hold on to that, because it comes back at the end of this lesson.
质量更高意味着每一种要素能生产得更多——把这一点记住，本课结尾还会用到。
Now the definition you will write more than any other.
现在是你写得最多的一个定义。
Opportunity cost is the next best alternative you give up when you make a choice.
机会成本是你做选择时放弃的下一个最好的选择。
Say next best, not everything else — you only give up the one option you would have picked instead. It hits all four decision-makers. A consumer who buys a game gives up the book.
要说"下一个最好的"，而不是"其他所有的"——你放弃的只是你本来会选的那一个。
A worker who takes one job gives up the pay of the next job they could have done. A producer who makes more cars uses factors that could have made trucks. A government that builds a hospital gives up the school it could have built with the same money.
它影响所有四类决策者：买了游戏的消费者放弃了那本书； 接受一份工作的工人放弃了另一份工作的工资； 多生产汽车的生产者，用掉了本来可以造卡车的要素； 建了一所医院的政府，放弃了用同一笔钱本可以建的学校。
And notice the last one carefully: every choice has a cost, even when no money changes hands at all.
仔细看最后这一条：每一个选择都有代价，哪怕根本没有钱易手。
Here is the diagram that puts all of this on one picture: the production possibility curve.
下面这张图把前面所有内容画在了一起：生产可能性曲线。 两个坐标轴各放一种物品。
Put one good on each axis. A classic pair is capital goods, which are used to make other goods, and consumer goods, which people use up.
经典的一对是资本品——用来生产其他物品的东西， 和消费品——被人们消耗掉的东西。
The curve itself joins every point where the economy uses all its resources to make the most it can.
这条曲线本身， 连接了经济体把所有资源全部用上、能生产出最多产品的每一个点。
Now, three places a point can sit, and the exam will ask you to read all three.
现在，一个点可以处在三个位置，考试会要求你把三种都读出来。
A point on the curve: every resource is fully used, and the economy makes the most it can.
曲线上的点：所有资源被充分利用，经济体生产出了它能生产的最大产量。
A point inside the curve: resources are wasted or idle — unemployment is the standard example — so the economy could make more of both goods.
曲线内部的点：资源被浪费或闲置——失业是标准例子——所以两种物品都可以生产得更多。
A point outside the curve: impossible today. There are simply not enough resources to reach it.
曲线外部的点：今天做不到，资源根本不够达到那里。
Let's do one.
我们来做一道。
An economy starts on its curve making forty machines and sixty tonnes of food.
一个经济体一开始位于它的曲线上，生产四十台机器和六十吨粮食。
To make fifty machines it must cut food to forty-five tonnes.
要生产五十台机器，它必须把粮食减少到四十五吨。
Give the opportunity cost of the extra machines.
求这些额外机器的机会成本。
The economy is already on the curve, so more of one good must mean less of the other.
这个经济体已经在曲线上了，所以一种物品多了，另一种就必须少。
Food falls from sixty to forty-five. So ten extra machines cost fifteen tonnes of food.
粮食从六十降到四十五，所以十台额外的机器，代价是十五吨粮食。
That lost food is the opportunity cost — quote it in tonnes of food, never in money.
失去的粮食就是机会成本——要用吨粮食来表述，绝不要用钱。
Then the second point: thirty machines and forty tonnes of food.
再看第二个点：三十台机器和四十吨粮食。
That lies inside the curve, so resources are idle or wasted, most likely through unemployment.
它位于曲线内部， 说明资源被闲置或浪费了，最可能的原因是失业。
From there the economy could make more of both goods, so moving out to the curve costs nothing at all.
从那里出发，两种物品都可以增加， 所以移动到曲线上完全没有代价。
Opportunity cost only bites once you are on the curve.
只有当你已经在曲线上时，机会成本才开始起作用。
Finally, the whole curve can move.
最后，整条曲线本身也会移动。
It shifts outward, to the right, when the country can make more of both goods. That is economic growth.
当这个国家两种物品都能生产得更多时， 曲线向外、向右移动，这就是经济增长。
The causes are the ones we met earlier: more resources — a bigger workforce, new land — or better resources through training and new technology.
原因就是我们前面讲过的那些： 资源变多——更大的劳动力、新发现的土地——或者通过培训和新技术让资源质量更好。
It shifts inward when the country can make less. That is economic decline.
当这个国家能生产的变少时，曲线向内移动，这就是经济衰退。
Causes are fewer or worse resources: a war, a natural disaster, or using up non-renewable resources like oil and coal, which cannot be replaced once they are gone.
原因是资源变少或变差：战争、自然灾害，或者用光了石油和煤这类不可再生资源—— 它们一旦用掉就无法补回。
Do not confuse the two movements. Going from inside the curve to the curve, by putting idle resources back to work, is a short-term gain. Moving the whole curve outward is long-term growth.
不要把这两种移动搞混： 从曲线内部回到曲线上，是把闲置资源重新利用起来，属于短期的改善； 而让整条曲线向外移动，才是长期的经济增长。
Three marks students throw away.
三个学生常丢的分。
First, when you give an opportunity cost, quote it in the units of the thing given up — tonnes of food, not dollars.
第一，给出机会成本时，要用被放弃那样东西的单位来表述—— 是多少吨粮食，不是多少美元。
Second, learn the reward pairs as pairs: land and rent, labour and wages, capital and interest, enterprise and profit.
第二，把报酬成对地记住：土地和地租、劳动和工资、 资本和利息、企业家才能和利润。
Profit is never the reward to labour.
利润绝不是劳动的报酬。
Third, on a PPC question, say clearly whether you are moving along the curve or the curve itself is shifting.
第三，做生产可能性曲线的题时，要说清楚你是沿着曲线移动，还是整条曲线在移动。
Along the curve is a trade-off with an opportunity cost; a shift of the curve is growth or decline.
沿着曲线移动是一种取舍，带有机会成本；整条曲线移动则是增长或衰退。
Those are two different answers, and the marks depend on which one you name.
这是两个不同的答案，分数取决于你说出的是哪一个。
Five things to carry out.
带走五件事。
First, scarcity is unlimited wants against finite resources, and it forces every choice.
第一，稀缺是无限欲望对有限资源，它迫使每一个选择。
Second, economic goods have an opportunity cost; free goods do not, and a free sample is still an economic good.
第二，经济物品有机会成本；免费物品没有，而免费样品仍是经济物品。
Third, the four factors are land, labour, capital and enterprise, rewarded by rent, wages, interest and profit.
第三，四种要素是土地、劳动、资本和企业家才能，报酬分别是地租、工资、利息和利润。
Fourth, opportunity cost is the next best alternative given up, quoted in the units of the thing you lost.
第四，机会成本是放弃的次优选择，要用你失去的那件东西的单位来写。
Fifth, on a PPC a point on the curve is full use, inside is waste, and a shift of the whole curve is growth or decline.
第五，在生产可能性曲线上，曲线上的点是充分利用，曲线内是浪费，整条曲线移动才是增长或衰退。
Moving to the curve is a short-term gain; shifting the curve outward is long-term growth.
回到曲线上是短期改善；曲线外移才是长期增长。