The cost of government

政府的開支

If a nation is essentially disunited, it is left to the government to hold it together. This increases the expense of government, and reduces correspondingly the amount of economic resources that could be used for developing the country. And it should not be forgotten how small those resources are in a poor and backward country. Where the cost of government is high, resources for development are correspondingly low.

This may be illustrated by comparing the position of a nation with that of a private business enterprise. An enterprise has to incur certain costs and expenses in order to stay in business. For our purposes, we are concerned only with one kind of cost -- the cost of managing and administering the business. Such administrative overheads in a business are analogous to the cost of government in a nation. The administrative overheads of a business are low to the extent that everyone working in the business can be trusted to behave in a way that best promotes the interests of the firm. If they can each be trusted to take such responsibilities and to exercise such initiative as falls within their sphere, then administrative overheads will be low. It will be low because it will be necessary to have only one man looking after each job, without having another man to check upon what he is doing, keep him in line, and report on him to someone else. But if no one can be trusted to act in a loyal and responsible manner towards his job, then the business will require armies of administrators, checkers, and foremen and administrative overheads will rise correspondingly. As administrative overheads rise, so the earnings of the business after meeting the expense of administration, will fall; and the business will have less money to distribute as dividends or invest directly in its future progress and development.

It is precisely the same with a nation. To the extent that the people can be relied upon to behave in a loyal and responsible manner, the government does not require armies of police and civil servants to keep them in order. But if a nation is disunited, the government cannot be sure that the actions of the people will be in the interests of the nation; and it will have to watch, check, and control the people accordingly. A disunited nation therefore has to incur unduly high costs of government.

本文參考譯文

如果一個(gè)國家實(shí)際上處于分裂狀態(tài)，使之聯(lián)合起來就是政府的事了。這樣的一來就增加了政府的開支，從而相應(yīng)地減少了可以用來了展國家的那部分經(jīng)濟(jì)資源。不應(yīng)忘記，在一個(gè)貧窮落后的國家里，那部分財(cái)力是很有限的。凡是政府管理費(fèi)用高的地方，用于發(fā)展國家經(jīng)濟(jì)的資金就會(huì)相應(yīng)地減少。

把國家的狀況同私人企業(yè)的狀況加以比較，就可以看清這個(gè)問題。一個(gè)企業(yè)為了繼續(xù)經(jīng)營，不得不支出一定的費(fèi)用和開銷。就我們的目的而言，我們只關(guān)心一種費(fèi)用 -- 企業(yè)行政管理費(fèi)。一家企業(yè)的行政管理開支類似于一個(gè)國家的政府管理所用的開支。如果企業(yè)中的每個(gè)人都在真誠地為提高企業(yè)利潤而工作，那么企業(yè)的管理費(fèi)用就會(huì)降低到相應(yīng)的程度。如果企業(yè)的每個(gè)人都信得過，人人都認(rèn)真負(fù)責(zé)，在各自的工作范圍內(nèi)發(fā)揮主動(dòng)性，行政管理費(fèi)用就會(huì)降低。行政管理費(fèi)用的降低的原因是：每項(xiàng)工作只需要一個(gè)人去完成，用不著另外再有一個(gè)人檢查工作。督促他遵守章程，或向有關(guān)人士匯報(bào)他的工作。但是，如果企業(yè)中誰也不可信賴會(huì)對(duì)工作盡忠守職，那公企業(yè)就會(huì)需大批的管理人員、檢查人員和帶班人員，管理費(fèi)用就會(huì)相應(yīng)在增加。管理費(fèi)用增加了，那么在扣除管理費(fèi)用后，企業(yè)的收入就降低了。因此用于分紅的金額就用于將來開拓和發(fā)展的投資就相應(yīng)地減少了。

一個(gè)國家的情況也完全相同。如果人民忠于職守，舉止規(guī)矩，能受到政府的信賴，那么政府就不需要大批的警察和文職人員運(yùn)去促使人民遵紀(jì)守法。但是，如果一個(gè)國家處于分裂狀態(tài)，政府不能相信人民的行動(dòng)有利于國家，那么政府就不得不對(duì)人民進(jìn)行監(jiān)督、檢查和控制。因此，一個(gè)處于分裂的國家必須要支付過高的行政管理費(fèi)用。

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