A few years ago, the rich world’s worry about economic interaction with developing countries was that the poor could not profit

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问题     A few years ago, the rich world’s worry about economic interaction with developing countries was that the poor could not profit from it. So unbalanced were the terms of exchange between the North’s mighty industries and the South’s weakling sweatshops that trade between the two could be nothing more than exploitation of the one by the other; far from helping the poor countries, global integration would actually deepen their poverty. This fear has now given way to a pessimism that is equal and opposite—namely, that trade with the developing world will impoverish today’s rich countries.
    This new fear is more dangerous than the old one. The earlier scare tacitly affirmed that the industrial countries would suffer if they cut their links with the third world. Starting from there, campaigning in the North to restrict trade with developing countries was going to be an uphill struggle. Those who oppose deeper economic integration now have a better platform. Vital interests oblige the rich countries to protect their industries from the new competition. Unlike its predecessor, this idea may sell.
    The new fear, like the old one, expresses the conviction that growth in one part of the world must somehow come at the expense of another. This is a deeply rooted prejudice, and plainly wrong. Very nearly all of the world is more prosperous now than it was 30 years ago. Growth has been a story of mutual advance.
    Lending useful support to this first error is a second—the idea that there is only so much work to go round. If new technologies make some jobs obsolete, or if an increase in the supply of cheap imports makes other jobs uneconomic, the result must be a permanent rise in unemployment. Again, on a moment’s reflection, this is wrong.
    At the core of both errors is blindness to the adaptive power of a market economy.

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答案 几年前,富国担忧的是穷国可能不会从富国与发展中国家的经济交流中受益。因此不平衡就成为北方强大的工业化国家和南方弱小的血汗工厂之间交换条件的代名词,而两者之间的贸易无非就是一方对另一方的剥削。随着全球经济一体化的到来,穷国非但没有从中受益,反而加剧了它们的贫困。这种担忧如今已经转为一种与此程度相同、但是意思截然相反的悲观情绪,即与发展中国家的贸易会导致现在的富国变穷。 与旧担忧相比,这种新担忧更加危险。旧担忧所默认的一个事实是,工业化国家若割断与第三世界的联系则会遭受损失。因此可以说,北方限制与发展中国家进行贸易的活动是一场艰难的斗争。如今,反对深化经济一体化的那些人拥有了一个更好的平台。在至关重要的利益驱使下,富国要保护自己的工业免于新的竞争。与原来的观点不同的是,这次的观点也许将被接受。 与旧担忧相似的是,新担忧同样表达了一种观点,即世界上一部分地区要取得发展,就必须牺牲另一部分地区的利益。这是一种根深蒂固的偏见,并且明显是错误的。与30年前相比,世界上几乎所有地区都要更加繁荣。增长已经成为一个共同进步的故事。 第二种错误观点是在支持第一种错误观点的基础上产生的,也就是能够分配的工作是有限的。若新技术使某些工作消失,若廉价进口品的供给增加导致其他工作不经济,势必会造成失业率的持续上升。可稍微思索就会发现,这种观点是错误的。 没有考虑市场经济的巨大调节力量是产生以上两种错误的核心原因。

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