首页
外语
计算机
考研
公务员
职业资格
财经
工程
司法
医学
专升本
自考
实用职业技能
登录
外语
Though the free-market faithful have long preached that competition creates efficiency, as if it were a law of nature, nature it
Though the free-market faithful have long preached that competition creates efficiency, as if it were a law of nature, nature it
admin
2016-06-30
52
问题
Though the free-market faithful have long preached that competition creates efficiency, as if it were a law of nature, nature itself teaches a different lesson. The seductively simple story of the virtues of competition contains some general theoretical truth, but execution is how theory dies, and we can’t let blind faith prevent us from seeing the deviling details of how it operates in practice. Unregulated competition in nature regularly delivers disaster. And ignoring nature’s lessons for our economy would have us be as dumb as trees.
Richard Dawkins tells us, "Tree trunks are standing monuments to futile competition. " No tree can afford to not compete in the height competition. However, if somehow the trees could arrange a pact of friendship to limit their heights, each tree, and the forest as a whole, could save energy. This is obviously not possible for trees, but if it were, Dawkins concludes, the " Forest of Friendship[would be]more efficient as a forest. "
Systems of self-interested agents, responding only to local incentives, can easily evolve energy-wasting, unfruitful competitions. Once a way of competing is established, it’s very difficult for individuals not to play along. If we let our economies imitate trees, and the majority of nature, in practicing unguided free competition, the results will often be suboptimal, for each and for all. Worse, we will miss the main benefit of being human, which is to use reason to coordinate better outcomes.
Enormous ill-suited "monuments to futile competition" exist at the heart of our health-care system. A 2008 study found that pharmaceutical companies spend 24% of their revenue on marketing and promotion(versus 13% on research and development). Drug prescription decisions should be based on objective medical criteria, and data on performance and side effects is publicly available. So why on earth would it make sense for pharmaceutical companies to spend so much on the armies of sales reps that visit doctors with such relentless regularity? The local logic at work is that no individual company can risk not playing the game.
Actually the lack of some cross-agent coordination prevents "the market" from increasing efficiencies in our unintelligently evolved U. S. health-care system. Competition’s benefits are created by constraints. Creative responses to designed and guided limits can work better than "natural constraints".
Free competition does not magically lead to the best outcome in nature. Nor does it in economics. The magic of markets isn’t like the magic of science: it much more resembles stage magic, where the effect is achieved by misdirection. A selective spotlight story focuses our attention, on the one hand, on the benefits of unbridled competition, but draws attention away from the other, invisible hand, as it’s busy externalizing costs or in other ways causing harm. This oversimplifying and oversold story has outlived its fitness. Our choice is either to be as dumb as trees, or to guide competition for better outcomes.
According to the author, competition can lead to inefficiency without______.
选项
A、appropriate theory
B、accurate practice
C、rational guidance
D、proper incentive
答案
C
解析
细节题。作者在第三段开始论述经济世界之中的竞争,其中第三句提到,如果经济简单地效法自然中的竞争,in practicing unguided free competition,无论是对个人还是团体来说,结果常常不是最佳的。可见,竞争必须有合理的引导才能产生效率,故答案为[C]。关于理论和实际操作的问题,在第三段中均没有提及,故[A]和[B]缺乏事实依据,应排除;incentive虽然在第三段中有所涉及,但是在作者看来,这显然不是让竞争产生效率的条件,故[D]也应排除。
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/QHPK777K
0
专业英语四级
相关试题推荐
EyingLucy______,Jasoncouldhardlybelievethathislonglostfriendwasstandingbeforehim.
Maybeunemploymentisn’tsobadafterall.Anewstudysaysthathavingademanding,unstableandthanklessjobmaymakeyoueve
Writeanoteofabout50-60wordsbasedonthefollowingsituation:Writea"ThankYou"lettertoMr.Smithforhisrecommen
Therehavealwaysbeenreputableandcompetentscientistswhohavedisagreedwithnewtheories.Theunderlinedpartmeans______.
"Soonenough,nobodywillrememberlifebeforetheInternet.Whatdoesthisunavoidablefactmean?"Itiswiththissoberingque
This______useofpowerwasn’tmerelyacharacterflaw.
Whenstudentsarechoosingdifferentclubs,theyaretoldthatitisbettertobeamemberofagroupthantobetheleaderofa
DaveWalsh,webeditoronboardtheRainbowWarrioragainthisyear,gavethefollowingaccountofthe2004expeditionthatfoll
UnderstandingTypesofPoemsI.EpicpoemsA.Definition:—anarrativeconcentratingon【T1】andeventsthataresignificant【T1】_
Asmallgroupofsalt-and-pepperhairedwomenwholiveoutsideJackson,Mississippi,meeteveryotherTuesdayatthelocalantiq
随机试题
与企业紧密相联,直接影响企业营销能力的各种参与者,被称为()。
报刘一丈书。报:
某男性工人,接尘工龄21年,主诉轻度运动后即感呼吸困难,体温正常,无明显咳痰,诊断工期石棉肺半年。如进行肺通气功能检查,其特征性改变是
流行病学实验的主要用途没有
A、颈段脊柱B、胸段脊柱C、颈胸脊柱D、骶段脊柱E、腰段脊柱脊柱后凸多发生于
在综合布置地下管线产生矛盾时,关于避让原则,下列说法错误的是()。
现代物流职业道德建设应重点从()和行为规范两个层面来开展。
根据以下资料,回答下列问题。2011年1-9月,全国造船完工5101万载重吨,同比增长18.3%,9月当月完工786万载重吨,环比增长67.2%,新承接船舶订单规模2902万载重吨,同比下降42.8%,手持船舶订单规模16886万载重吨,同比下降
任何事物的发展都是一个螺旋上升的过程,只有坚持“一张蓝图抓到底”,以夸父逐日的_________、水滴石穿的_________,才能破解转型发展中的顽瘴痼疾。填入划横线部分最恰当的一项是:
从现在到2020年,是全面建成小康社会的决胜期,也是确保实现第一个百年目标、为第二个百年目标打好基础的关键阶段。面对各种严峻复杂的挑战,如期全面建成小康社会必须打好的攻坚战的首要战役是
最新回复
(
0
)