Many people believe that free market capitalism is selfish, even immoral. They say it's about greed, about a hunger for money and power; that it helps the rich and hurts the poor. They're wrong. The free market is not only economically superior, it is morally superior to any other way of organizing economic behavior. Here's why.
The free market calls for voluntary actions between individuals. There's no coercion. In a free market, if I want something from you, I have to do something for you.
Let's say I mow your lawn and you pay me twenty dollars. What does that twenty dollars really mean? When I go to the grocer and say, "I would like to have four pounds of steak" He, in effect, says to me, "You want a lot of people to serve you -- ranchers, truckers, butchers, and packagers. All these people have to be paid. What did you do to serve your fellow man?”
"Well," I say, "I mowed my fellow man's lawn." And the grocer says, "Prove it." Then I offer him the twenty dollars. Think of the money that you've earned as a certificate of performance. It's proof that you've served your fellow man.
People accuse the free market of not being moral because they say it's a zero-sum game, like poker, where if you win, it means that I have to lose. But the free market is not a zero-sum game. It's a positive sum game. You do something good for me, such as give me that steak and I'll do something good for you -- give you twenty dollars. I'm better off because I valued the steak more than I valued the $20 and the grocer is better off because he valued the $20 more than he valued the steak. We both win.
Ironically, it's the government, not the free market, that creates zero-sum games in our economy. If you use the government to get a food stamp, a farm subsidy or a business bail out, you will benefit -- but at the expense of your fellow citizens. Isn't it more moral to require that people serve their fellow man in order to have a claim on what he produces rather than not serve others and still have a claim?
But, a lot of people ask, what about giant corporations? Don't they have too much power over our lives? Not in a free market. Because in a free market We, the People, decide the fate of companies who want our business.
Free market capitalism will punish a corporation that does not satisfy customers or fails to use resources efficiently. Businesses, big and small, that wish to prosper are held accountable by the people who vote with their dollars. And, again, it's the government that can undo this.
Take the example of the American automobile industry. It was struggling to survive in 2009. Why? Because they were producing cars that did not please a sufficient number of their fellow men. In a free market, they would therefore have gone bankrupt. The market would have said, "Look, you're done. Sell your plant and equipment to somebody who can do a better job." But when Chrysler and General Motors failed, they went to Washington D.C. and got the government to bail them out.
The government bailout essentially meant to them: "You don't have to be accountable to customers and stock holders.' No matter how inferior your product is and no matter how inefficient you are, we'll keep you in business by taking your fellow man's money. When government interferes in this way, it takes the power away from the people and rewards companies that couldn't compete successfully in the marketplace. That may work out very well for politicians, big unions and corporate officers, but it seldom does for the tax payer. That's why a free market system can only work if there is limited government. Limited government means you and I decide which businesses survive.
That's the America that our Founding Fathers envisioned -- a limited government that has only a few specifically mentioned -- or enumerated -- powers that are listed in Article I, Section 8 of the United States Constitution. It's this brilliant, limited-government notion that produced the wealthiest nation in history. In a free market, the ambition and the voluntary effort of citizens, not the government, drives the economy. That is: people, to the best of their ability, shaping their own destiny.
“One day I want to own my own business; be my own boss.”
「希望有一天我能自己创业，自己做老板。」
Probably nothing embodies the essence of the American Dream more than that thought.
大概没有哪个想法比这更能体现美国梦的精髓了。
And what American hasn’t had it?
哪个美国人没有这个想法呢？
Henry Ford had it. Oprah Winfrey had it. Steve Jobs had it.
亨利·福特有。欧普拉·温芙蕾有。史蒂夫·乔布斯有。
So did the owner of your favorite food truck.
你中意的餐车老板也有这个想法。
So have countless others.
无数人也有。
Many of those people came to the US because they believed their best chance to achieve it was here, in America.
他们许多人来到美国，是因为他们相信最有机会实现这个想法的地方，就是美国。
Many have been rewarded for their boldness.
他们的胆量也大多得到了回报。
Many have not.
也有许多人没有。
Starting a business, as everyone knows, is fraught with obstacles.
众所周知，创业路上充满障碍。
But still countless Americans risk it—risking everything to make it happen.
但无数美国人依然甘愿冒险——倾尽一切也要去做。
Why?
为什么？
Of course, we already know the answer.
当然，我们已经知道答案。
Because owning your own business represents freedom.
因为拥有自己的企业代表着自由。
You may miss some your kids' soccer games, need to take out a second mortgage and work hundred-hour weeks, but ultimately you are in charge of your own destiny.
你可能会错过你孩子几场球赛，必须做二次抵押，每周工作上百小时，但最终主宰你命运的是你自己。
You are independent.
你是独立的。
You are free.
你是自由的。
And that’s exactly the reason Big Government despises small business.
这正是为什么大政府蔑视小企业。
Big Government is all about control.
大政府最关心的就是控制。
And small business is very hard to control.
小企业是非常难控制的。
Big Business is much easier to manage. Why? Because there aren’t that many of them.
大企业要容易管得多。为什么？因为他们数量并不多。
But there are a lot of small businesses.
而小企业为数众多。
Nail salons. Car repair shops. Local gyms. Restaurants.
美甲沙龙、修车店、本地健身房、餐厅。
In fact, there are more than 30 million small businesses in America. These businesses employ approximately half the workforce, and account for around half of the entire US GDP.
实际上，美国有超过三亿家小企业。这些企业雇佣了大约一半的劳动力，并贡献了美国大约一半的 GDP。
Their endless variety from pest control to dry cleaners to family farms is the very fabric of American commerce. Any product or service you can think is covered by a small business somewhere.
Small businesses are why America became the richest nation in the world. Let’s not forget that every successful big business started out as a small business.
小企业是美国成为世界上最富裕国家的原因。请别忘记每一家成功大企业一开始都是从小企业做起的。
There’s no magic to it, really. Give individuals the chance to be free and creative and they will be.
当中其实没什么神奇的。给予个人自由和创造的机会，他们就会这么做。
Then came March 2020.
然后 2020 年三月来了。
And this engine of economic growth came to a sudden and shocking halt.
这一经济增长引擎令人始料不及地停止了。
It was the single greatest disaster in the history of American small business.
这是美国小企业史上最大的一场灾难。
For the first time ever, the government shut down the economy. Well, they shut down a part of it—primarily the small business part
有史以来第一次，政府把整个经济关停了。好吧，他们关停了一部分——主要是小企业那部分。
The big business part—Amazon, the chain groceries, the big box stores and drug stores—were allowed to remain open.
大企业——亚马逊，连锁杂货店、大卖场和药店——被允许继续营业。
Money that would normally have gone to small business went instead to big business.
通常会流向小企业的钱转而流向了大企业。
Had this been limited to a couple of weeks as first promised, it might have been okay. But it went on for months and months.
如果如最初承诺的那样，关停仅限于几个星期，那应该没什么问题。但它持续了一个又一个月。
Yes, government loans helped some small businesses to stay open, but it was the government that closed them down to begin with! And those small relief funds weren’t nearly enough for many. To cite one dismal statistic, one in six restaurants nationwide closed forever—that’s more than one hundred thousand across the country!
And when things did return to something approaching normal, the small businesses that did survive had trouble finding people willing to work. It made more sense for many workers to stay home and collect money from the government. It also made sense for parents not rush back to work for fear the government would lock down schools again.
And when workers did return to work, struggling small businesses had to compete with the thriving Big Businesses on wages and benefits, a competition they were sure to lose.
当工人们终于复工，艰难求存的小企业还得跟欣欣向荣的大企业在工资和福利上竞争，这场竞争他们无疑会输。
The rich got richer.
富人变得更富有。
The government got more power.
政府变得更有权力。
And small business got screwed.
小企业被搞惨了。
This is bad for America.
这对美国是不利的。
It’s bad because, more than any single entity, small business is America.
不利在于，比起其他任何实体，小企业代表了美国。
Having the ability to choose how you want to make a living is an important part of a free market and a free society—and small businesses embody that freedom.
能够选择自己的谋生方式是一个自由市场和自由社会的重要组成部分——小企业体现了这一自由。
America will not look or feel like the America we have known without a robust small business sector. It will be a far duller, more homogenous, less friendly, and less dynamic place.
但这样一来，又有了一个问题——美国当年打独立战争，各州合伙造了英国国王的反，最重要“大义名分”是《独立宣言》里的那句话：
“我们认为下列真理是不言而喻的:人人生而平等（All men are created equal，直译应为“人人皆被平等的创造”），他们都被他们的造物主赋予了某些不可转让的权利，其中包括生命权、自由权和追求幸福的权利。”
PragerU字幕组
原标题：Big Government, Big Business, Big Problems
首刊日期：2022 年 2 月 15 日
There was the Great Depression (1932-1940) …
大萧条(1932-1940)
The Great Recession (2008-2009) …
大衰退(2008-2009)
And now the Great Consolidation, a historic transfer of wealth and power from the middle class to the already wealthy and well-connected.
还有现在的大合并，财富与权力前所未有地从中产阶级向本已富有和人脉好的人那转移。
Big Government and Big Business are dismantling and reshaping the American economy. It works for them—they are bigger, stronger, and richer than ever—but it doesn’t work for most Americans.
大政府和大企业正在拆解重组美国经济。这对它们很有利，它们比以往更大，更强，更富有，但却不利于绝大部分美国人。
This is especially true for the engine of economic growth—the small business owner.
尤其是对于经济增长的引擎——小企业主。
More than 30 million small businesses account for about half the GDP and jobs in America; the other half of the economy is concentrated in around 20,000 big companies.
超过三亿小企业为美国贡献了大约一半的 GDP 和工作岗位；另一半经济则集中在约两万家大公司中。
Based on that almost equal split of economic value, you might expect that small businesses have the same clout as big businesses.
鉴于这一几乎平分的经济价值，你可能以为小企业的影响力和大企业相当。
Not even close.
差远了。
Big corporations are masters of the political game. They have the money to pay the lobbyists, lawyers, and politicians to get what they need. And, in turn, the government gets what it needs from Big Business—cooperation, compliance, and campaign contributions.
大公司们精通政治游戏。它们有钱付给说客、律师和政客以得到自己需要的。反过来，政府也从大企业得到它所需的——合作、顺从和竞选捐款。
Small businesses are on the sidelines of this game. Your local butcher, baker, and candlestick maker simply don’t have the cash to make big campaign contributions or hire lobbying teams.
小企业在这场游戏里只能靠边站。你当地的肉贩、面包店老板和烛台制造商根本没有钱去做大笔竞选捐款或雇游说团队。
Still, for all these disadvantages, the entrepreneurial spirit that has long defined America has never waned.
尽管有着这些劣势，长期以来定义美国的自由企业精神从未衰微。
Then came Covid—or rather, the government reaction to Covid.
然后新冠病毒，或者说政府对新冠病毒的反应，来了。
"Two weeks to slow the spread" became month after month of lockdowns and ever-shifting restrictions that destroyed hundreds of thousands of small businesses and left millions more hanging on by a thread.
「用两周减缓传播」变成月复一月的封禁和花样不断的限制令，摧毁了成千上万小企业，让无数人命悬一线。
Big firms were deemed "essential" and allowed to stay open, while small businesses were subjected to punishing lockdown orders and forced to close, in part or in full. The hypocrisy presented by this government edict—Big Box open, Mom and Pop not—was obvious for all to see. These decisions were not based on science but on political influence.
大企业被视为「必需的」，允许保持开业，然而小企业则要遭受惩罚性的封禁命令，被迫部分或完全停业。政府命令所展现的虚伪——大卖场开门，夫妻店不行——大家都有目共睹。这些决定并非基于科学，而是政治影响力。
You could take Fido to PetSmart to have his hair groomed and his nails trimmed, but not take yourself to your favorite salon for a pedicure. How does that make sense?
你可以带狗去宠物智能修毛剪指甲，但是你自己却不能去你喜欢的美容院做足部护理。这是什么道理？
Or how about this example:
这个例子又怎么样：
In Los Angeles, the Pineapple Hill Saloon and Grill was forced to close its outdoor dining area—while a movie production hosted a catering tent serving food to its cast and crew in the same parking lot that the restaurant had been forced to abandon.
在洛杉矶，菠萝山酒吧烧烤店被迫关闭其户外晚餐区，而一个电影制作组支起餐宴帐篷为其演员和团队提供餐食，就在同一个停车场，餐厅被迫停用的地方。
The results of this arrangement weren’t hard to predict: spending that couldn't be done at small businesses was shifted to the ones that were open: big businesses.
这种安排的结果不难预料：没办法花到小企业的消费转移到了能够开业的那些：大企业。
In this environment small businesses were “too small to succeed” not because of anything they did but because the government wouldn’t allow them to serve their customers—all their work, money, and hopes and dreams were crushed by government mandate.
在这种情形下小企业「小到不能成」不是因为它们做了什么，而是因为政府不让它们服务顾客——他们全部工作、金钱、希望和梦想都被政府强制令粉碎。
It was the worst of times for the little guy. And the best of times for the Big Guys: Big Business and Big Government.
至暗时期于小人物，黄金时期于大人物：大企业和大政府。
As Big Government flexed its power with lockdowns and spending and the Federal Reserve pumped money into the markets, big businesses and their investors did great. Seven technology companies alone gained more than $3 trillion in value and the wealthiest became even wealthier.
随着大政府以封禁和支出显摆其权力，联储向市场注入大量金钱，大企业和他们的投资者发财了。单是七家科技公司就收获了超过 3 万亿的财富，最富有的人富上加富了。
Now, Big Business isn’t bad in its own right. After all, every big business started as a small one. Big businesses create products and services that add value to our lives. Nobody should begrudge them making millions or even billions in profit—that is, if it is done on merit. It is a big problem, though, when it is done through the government limiting or even shutting down the competition—small business. That’s not free-market capitalism. That’s cronyism.
大企业本身并不是坏事。毕竟，所有大企业都是从小企业开始的。大企业创造产品和服务，为我们的生活增添价值。没有人应该嫉妒它们赚上百万甚至上十亿利润，如果这是来自它们的业绩。大问题在于，如果这是来自政府限制或甚至阻止其竞争对手——小企业。这不是自由市场资本主义。这是裙带主义。
And there’s no evidence that this trend—Big Government and Big Business getting bigger—is going to end anytime soon.
没有证据表明这种趋势——大政府和大企业越来越大——会很快结束。
Who’s going stop it?
谁来阻止它？
Not Big Business. It always benefits from less competition.
不是大企业。它总是受益于少竞争。
Not Big Government. Small business owners are too hard to control. It is much easier to manage a handful of big corporations feeding at the government trough, than millions of entrepreneurs who just want to pursue economic freedom.
不是大政府。控制小企业主太难了。再容易不过的是控制少数政府供养的大公司，而不是无数一心追求经济自由的企业家。
If we are not careful, the Great Consolidation will end with Big Business and Big Government fully in control. That means less choice in products and services, less choice in jobs, less innovation and more barriers to wealth creation.
如果我们不当心，大合并可能最终变成大企业和大政府的完全控制，这意味着产品和服务的选择更少，工作选择更少，创新更少，财富创造的障碍更多。
Big does not equal better. At some point, it usually means worse.
大不等于更好。有时候，它一般意味着更糟。
But we’re not powerless. We have the dollars, and we have the votes.
我们并非无能为力。我们有钞票，我们有选票。
It’s time we use them.
是时候用它们了。
Before we lose them.
在我们失去它们之前。
I’m Carol Roth, author of the The War on Small Business for Prager University.
我是卡罗·劳斯，The War on Small Business 的作者，为 PragerU 制作。
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