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0小岛经济学
How an Economy Grows and Why It Crashes
今天，多吉要讲的是彼得·希夫和安德鲁·希夫讲的一个故事。
Today, Duji is going to tell a story by Peter and Andrew Schiff.
一座岛上只有三个人。有一天，其中一个人饿着肚子，不去抓鱼，织了一张网。这座岛上后来的一切，都是从那张网开始的。
On a small island there lived just three men. One day, one of them went hungry and did not fish at all. Instead, he wove a net. Everything that happened on that island later began with that net.
很多年后，岛上堆着一沓沓纸。纸上印着鱼，写着可以换一条真鱼。可没有人换得到。
Many years later, the island was piled with stacks of paper. Each note had a fish printed on it, and a promise: this can be traded for one real fish. But nobody could get one.
中间那几十年，发生了什么？
So what happened in all those years in between?
那座岛很小。艾伯、贝克、查理，三个人。岛上只有一种鱼，很大，一条刚好够一个人吃一天。他们每天徒手伸进水里，抓一条，吃掉；第二天再抓一条，再吃掉。
The island was tiny. There were three men: Able, Baker and Charlie. Only one kind of fish lived in the water. It was big — one fish was just enough for one man for one day. Every day they reached into the water with bare hands, caught a fish and ate it. The next day, they did the same.
没有剩下的鱼，也就没有别的事可做。抓鱼的本事不会长，日子也不会变，一天一天，一模一样。
Nothing was ever left over, so there was nothing else to do. Nobody got better at fishing. Nothing changed. Day after day was exactly the same.
艾伯先受不了了。他想织一张网，可织网要花掉一整天，那一天他就抓不到鱼，就得饿着。贝克觉得，为一件还不存在的东西饿一天，不值。查理更直接，他觉得现在这样就挺好。
Able was the first to grow tired of it. He wanted to weave a net, but weaving would take a whole day. That day he could not fish, and he would go hungry. Baker thought it was not worth going hungry for something that did not exist yet. Charlie was even plainer: he thought things were fine as they were.
艾伯还是做了。他饿了一天，把网织出来。第二天，他把网放进水里，一天抓到两条鱼。一条吃掉，一条剩下。
Able did it anyway. He went hungry for one day and finished the net. The next day he put it in the water and caught two fish. He ate one and kept the other.
那条剩下来的鱼，是岛上第一次出现的东西：储蓄。它不只是一条鱼，它是一个人不必下水也能活一天的时间。
That leftover fish was the first thing of its kind on the island: savings. It was more than a fish. It was a whole day of life that a man did not have to spend in the water.
贝克看懂了。他也饿了一天，织了自己的网。查理没看懂，还是每天抓一条，吃一条。
Baker understood. He went hungry for a day too and wove his own net. Charlie did not understand. He still caught one fish a day and ate it.
等到他也想织网，问题来了：织网的那一天，他吃什么？他没有存鱼。
Then the day came when Charlie wanted a net too — and there was a problem. What would he eat on the day he wove it? He had saved nothing.
艾伯借给他一条，条件是网织好以后还两条。查理答应了。网成之后，他每天抓两条，还掉欠的，还能剩下。
Able lent him one fish, on one condition: when the net was finished, Charlie would pay back two. Charlie agreed. Once the net was done, he caught two fish a day, paid back what he owed, and still had one left.
鱼多了，就不必所有人都去抓鱼。有人做衣服，有人盖房子，有人造船，拿鱼去换别人的东西。鱼成了钱。
With more fish, not everyone had to fish anymore. Some made clothes. Some built houses. Some built boats. They traded fish for what others made. Fish became money.
鱼不好带，也不好存。于是有人开了存鱼的仓库，谁把鱼存进来，要用时再来取。仓库把这些鱼借给想织网、想造船的人，收一点利息。银行就是这么来的。
Fish were hard to carry and hard to keep. So someone opened a storehouse. Anyone could leave fish there and come back for them later. The storehouse lent those fish to people who wanted to build nets or boats, and charged a little interest. That was how the first bank began.
到这里为止，岛上每一样东西都是真的。每一条鱼，都是有人下水抓上来的。
Up to this point, everything on the island was real. Every fish had been caught by a man in the water.
然后政府来了。岛民选出议长，议长要修路、要办事、要让每个人过得好一点。可议长手里没有鱼，鱼都在别人手里。艾伯当年织网，是自己先饿了一天；议长要办的事，不用自己饿。
Then the government came. The islanders elected a chief, and the chief wanted to build roads, run things, and make life better for everyone. But the chief had no fish. The fish belonged to other people. When Able wove his net, he went hungry first. When the chief wanted to do something, he did not have to go hungry at all.
