Here are five myths about free enterprise.
这里有五个关于自由企业制度的迷思。
Myth Number One. Free enterprise hurts the poor.
迷思 1：自由企业制度伤害穷人。
Since 1970, the percentage of the world's population living on the equivalent of less than a dollar a day has fallen by more than 80 percent.
自 1970 年，世界上每天靠相当于不足 1 美元生活的人口的百分比下降超 80%。
This was not the result of foreign aid or U.N. development projects. It was the spread of free enterprise that achieved this miracle. In China alone, free trade and foreign investment -- investment, not aid -- lifted 400 million Chinese out of abject poverty in just the 20 years between 1981 and 2001.
这不是国外援助或联合国发展计划的成果。实现这一奇迹的是自由企业制度的传播。单单在中国，自由贸易和外商投资——是投资，而非援助——让超过四亿中国人摆脱了赤贫，只花了 1981 年到 2001 年二十年时间。
There has never been a force for helping the poor that has come close to free enterprise.
没有任何东西能比自由企业制度更加帮助到穷人
Myth Number Two. Free enterprise is driven by greed.
迷思 2：自由企业制度是由贪婪驱动的。
If entrepreneurs were all about money, they'd be far better off getting a secure job in civil service. According to a recent survey by Careerbuilder.com, small-business owners made 19 percent less money per year than government managers.
如果企业家们只关心钱，他们还不如在政府部门找份安稳的工作。根据 Careerbuilder.com 最近一份调查，小企业主年收入要比政府管理层低 19%。
Entrepreneurs are driven by a fierce desire to control their own destiny. They strive for something I call "earned success."
企业家们的驱动力来自掌控自己前途的强烈渴望。他们努力追求是我称之为的「挣来的成功」。
For some people, earned success means business success; for others, it means raising good kids, building a nonprofit, or making beautiful art -- whatever allows people to create value in their lives and in the lives of others.
对一些人而言，挣来的成功指的是商业成功；对其他人，它指的是抚养好孩子、创办非盈利机构、创作美丽的艺术——任何让人们为自己的生活和其他人的生活创造价值的事。
Only free enterprise gives them the personal freedom to do that.
只有自由企业制度能给他们做这些事的个人自由。
Myth Number Three. Free enterprise breeds envy.
迷思 3：自由企业制度滋生妒忌。
Since 1973, the General Social Survey has asked Americans whether they believe good luck or hard work is more important in getting ahead. For 40 years, between 60 and 70 percent of Americans have chosen "hard work." In a recent poll, the Pew Research Center found that 88 percent of Americans said they admired people who get rich by working hard.
自 1973 年起，综合社会调查问美国人他们觉得幸运和努力工作哪样更有助于成功。四十年来，60% ~ 70% 美国人都选择了「努力工作」。在皮尤调查中心最近一份民意调查中，88% 美国人说他们倾佩那些靠努力工作变富的人。
This view is unique to the United States. According the World Values Survey, Americans are more likely than those of other nations to attribute success to hard work. Americans are twice as likely to do so than the French.
这一看法是美国特有的。根据世界价值观调查，美国人比起其他国家的人更可能把成功归功于努力工作，会这样想的美国人是法国人的两倍。
In a society that rewards initiative and offers opportunity, free enterprise fosters aspiration and ambition. It is in societies that have much less economic freedom and far fewer entrepreneurs and therefore economic stagnation that you find envy, resentment, and often unrest. This is the case in Europe, where people demand more and more government benefits instead of demanding to keep more of what they earn.
在一个奖赏首创精神并提供机会的社会，自由企业制度鼓励抱负和雄心。在那些经济自由少得多、企业家少得多，因而经济停滞的社会，才会有妒忌、仇恨，以及经常的动荡不安。欧洲就是如此，人们要求越来越多的政府福利，而不是要求留住更多自己挣的钱。
Myth Number Four. Free enterprise caused the Great Recession.
迷思 4：自由企业制度导致大衰退。
It wasn't free enterprise that was at fault; it was the lack of free enterprise. Statism and its co-dependent spouse -- corporate cronyism -- melted down our economy.
要怪的不是自由企业制度，要怪的是自由企业制度的缺乏。国家主义及其共生伴侣——公司裙带主义——溶毁了我们的经济。
As my American Enterprise Institute colleague Peter Wallison has documented, two decades of misguided government policy created the conditions that led to the housing bubble. When housing prices collapsed, so did the whole financial system. And who showed up first in the bailout line? Large corporations, including car companies, big banks, and the government-backed mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
如我在美国企业研究所的同事彼得·沃利森所记载的，二十年错误的政府政策打下了房地产泡沫的基础。当房价崩溃，整个金融系统也崩溃了。是谁首先站出来要求救助？是大企业，包括汽车公司、大银行，以及政府支持的抵押贷款巨头房利美和房地美。
This isn't the free market at work -- not even close. It's a toxic mix of big government and its corporate clients. The solution is more free enterprise: where entrepreneurs put their money on the line and earn a profit or suffer a loss.
这不是自由市场的运作方式——完全不是。这是大政府及其公司客户的有毒混合。解决方案是更多自由企业制度：让企业家用自己的钱冒险，自负盈亏。
Myth Number Five. Free enterprise is unfair.
迷思 5：自由企业制度不公平。
When I was an economics professor, my students would sometimes argue that it was "not fair" for the rich to have so much more than the poor. So halfway through the course, I proposed that a quarter of the points earned by the top half of the class be passed on to the students in the lower half, to improve grade equality. All of a sudden, discussion about fairness ended.
在我还是经济学教授的时候，我的学生有时会说富人比穷人有钱那么多是「不公平」的。因此课程上到一半的时候，我提议将成绩较好那一半同学的分数的 1/4 转移给成绩较差的另一半学生，以改善成绩平等。大家一下子就不谈什么公平了。
We all acknowledge that some income redistribution is necessary to pay for government and to finance a social safety net. But as long as people are free to earn money, some will earn more than others. For a majority of Americans, fairness is not redistributing wealth; fairness is rewarding merit -- and that's what free enterprise does.
我们都承认，一些收入再分配对于维持政府运作、资助社会安全网是必要的，但只要人们能够自由地挣钱，一些人就会比其他人挣得多。对于大多数美国人，公平不在于财富再分配，公平是奖赏唯贤，这才叫自由企业制度。
Free enterprise -- like freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, and freedom of religion -- makes our nation more fair, not less.
自由企业制度——如言论自由、集社自由、宗教自由——让我们国家更公平，而非相反。
I'm Arthur Brooks, President of the American Enterprise Institute for Prager University.
我是亚瑟·布鲁克斯，美国企业研究所主席，为 PragerU 制作。
