TED演讲:企业垄断的新时代(3)

 Think for a moment about your car. 就拿你的车来说。

It has thousands of parts, from the foam¹ that makes the seats to the electrical wiring to the light bulbs. 它由数千个零件组成，从座椅的海绵，到电线，到灯泡。

And for many of those parts, the world's carmakers, they are dependent on only a few suppliers. 对于许多这些零件，世上的汽车制造商只依赖少数供应商。

So it's hardly surprising that it is kind of tempting² for those suppliers to come together and fix prices. 所以，那些供应商会被诱惑到聚在一起定价格，这一点也不奇怪。

But just imagine what that could do to the final price of your new car in the market. 但是想像一下，这么做对新车在市场上的最终价格有何影响。

Except, it's not imaginary. 然而这些并非虚构。

The European Commission has dealt with already seven different car parts cartels, and we're still investigating some. 欧盟委员会已处理了七件不同车零件的垄断案例，还有一些案例我们仍在调查。

Here, the Department of Justice are also looking into the market for car parts, 在这里，司法部也在调查车零件的市场，

and it has called it the biggest criminal investigation³ it has ever pursued. 并称其为有史以来最大宗的刑事调查。

But without competition rules, there would be no investigation, 但是如果没有竞争规范，就不会有任何调查，

and there would be nothing to stop this collusion from happening and the prices of your car to go up. 也没办法阻止这种勾当，然后你轿车的价格就会飙升。

Yet it's not only companies who can undermine fair competition. Governments can do it, too. 破坏公平竞争的除了公司企业，还有政府机构。

And governments do that when they hand out subsidies⁴ to just the favorite few, the selected. 政府发补贴给受青睐的少数时就已经在破坏公平竞争了。

They may do that when they hand out subsidies -- and, of course, all financed by taxpayers⁵ -- to companies. 政府发补贴给企业的时候也可能破坏公平竞争，当然，所有费用由纳税人买单。

That may be in the form of special tax treatments, 这种破坏可能以特别税收待遇的形式出现，

like the tax benefits that firms like Fiat⁶, Starbucks and Apple got from some governments in Europe. 比如，赋税优惠，像菲亚特、星巴克和苹果这类大公司在欧洲得到一些政府的税收优惠。

Those subsidies stop companies from competing on equal terms. 这些补贴破坏了公司间的公平竞争。

They can mean that the companies that succeed, well, they are the companies that got the most subsidy⁷, 这意味着成功的公司是那些得到最多补贴的公司，

the ones that are the best-connected, and not, as it should be, the companies that serve consumers the best. 也是最会搞关系的公司，然而成功的公司应该是给消费者最好的服务的。

So there are times when we need to step in to make sure that competition works the way it should. 所以，我们得时不时介入，确保竞争依其原本的方式进行。

By doing that, we help the market to work fairly, because competition gives consumers the power to demand a fair deal. 这么做，我们帮助市场公平运作，因为竞争使消费者有权做公平的交易。

It means that companies know that if they cannot offer good prices or the service that's expected, well, the customers will go somewhere else. 这表示，如果公司企业知道自己不能提供更好的价格或提供预期的服务，那么消费者就会另寻他处。

 

1 foam   

v./n.泡沫，起泡沫

参考例句：

• The glass of beer was mostly foam.这杯啤酒大部分是泡沫。
• The surface of the water is full of foam.水面都是泡沫。

2 tempting   

a.诱人的, 吸引人的

参考例句：

• It is tempting to idealize the past. 人都爱把过去的日子说得那么美好。
• It was a tempting offer. 这是个诱人的提议。

3 investigation   

n.调查，调查研究

参考例句：

• In an investigation,a new fact became known, which told against him.在调查中新发现了一件对他不利的事实。
• He drew the conclusion by building on his own investigation.他根据自己的调查研究作出结论。

4 subsidies   

n.补贴，津贴，补助金( subsidy的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• European agriculture ministers failed to break the deadlock over farm subsidies. 欧洲各国农业部长在农业补贴问题上未能打破僵局。
• Agricultural subsidies absorb about half the EU's income. 农业补贴占去了欧盟收入的大约一半。 来自《简明英汉词典》

5 taxpayers   

纳税人，纳税的机构( taxpayer的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Finance for education comes from taxpayers. 教育经费来自纳税人。
• She was declaiming against the waste of the taxpayers' money. 她慷慨陈词猛烈抨击对纳税人金钱的浪费。

6 fiat   

n.命令，法令，批准；vt.批准，颁布

参考例句：

• The opening of a market stall is governed by municipal fiat.开设市场摊位受市政法令管制。
• He has tried to impose solutions to the country's problems by fiat.他试图下令强行解决该国的问题。

7 subsidy   

n.补助金，津贴

参考例句：

• The university will receive a subsidy for research in artificial intelligence.那个大学将得到一笔人工智能研究的补助费。
• The living subsidy for senior expert's family is included in the remuneration.报酬已包含高级专家家人的生活补贴。