金融时报:金钱能买什么？

金钱能买什么？

卖"黄牛票"合理吗？黑帮老大冠名赞助阶梯教室可以吗？为什么即使自愿的奴隶制也不可接受呢？FT评论员约翰·凯(John Kay)从桑德尔的《金钱不能买什么》出发，解释“金钱可以买什么”。

测试中可能遇到的词汇和知识：

EasyJet 易捷航空

surrogate motherhoodv代孕母亲

Al Capone 艾尔·卡彭，上世纪20年代的芝加哥黑手党教父。其党徒以黑风衣下藏冲锋枪的形象著称，他火并了无数黑帮，打通政界和司法界，控制芝加哥的黄赌毒产业，禁酒法让他大发横财，联邦政府直到1931年才以逃税指控将其逮捕。由于其"劫富济贫"行为和智慧的犯罪方式，至今仍有人崇敬。有多部影片讲述卡彭的故事。

ticket scalping 黄牛党，黄牛票

aesthetically[iːs'θetɪkəlɪ] adj.审美地，美学观点上地

toddler ['tɒdlə] n.学步的小孩

polymath ['pɒlɪmæθ] n.博学的人

The limits of what money can buy (725 words)

The easyJet flight to London was only slightly delayed by snow. Still, I took advantage of the opportunity to push ahead of other impatient passengers and settle down to read the recent book by American philosopher Michael Sandel, What Money Can’t Buy. I had paid easyJet €12 for the privilege of speedy boarding.

Sandel queries the legitimacy of such transactions. In a market economy, should there be things that money just cannot buy? Should there be markets for sperm, surrogate motherhood or transplant organs? Should lobbyists be able to pay people to stand in line for them to secure admission to popular congressional hearings? Should we try to outlaw prostitution? Is it proper to require students to attend classes in the Al Capone lecture theatre if Capone paid generously for the naming rights? Should these students be allowed to tattoo their forehead with “Visit New Zealand” in return for a contribution to their tuition fees?

Even the most committed believer in the free market is reluctant to agree that contracts of slavery should be legally enforceable. But the purchase of a human kidney from a poor donor is presumptively advantageous to both parties and harmful to no one else. Where, and why, does the argument that voluntary transactions are mutually beneficial break down?

Sandel offers an answer. “When we decide that certain goods may be bought and sold, we decide, at least implicitly, that it is appropriate to treat them as commodities, as instruments of profit and use. But not all goods are properly valued in this way.”

While most people would agree with that proposition, it does not take us very far. What criteria determine which goods are properly valued in this way and which not? Sandel provides an intriguing list of the many kinds of transaction that most people find distasteful, but not a principled rationale against which to test our intuitions. Should easyJet offer me speedy boarding, and should I take advantage of it?

The reasons for distaste seem to fall into a few broad categories. Probably we do not believe the contract of enslavement is truly voluntary. The prospective slave is bemused, or in a hurry, or a state of desperation. But similar arguments would strike down a lot of transactions. Many widely distributed financial products would not be bought by anyone who understood them. And how often have you read the licence conditions on your new software?

The slave contract is unacceptable for the more fundamental reason that it affronts human dignity. So does the sale of transplant organs and the forehead tattoo. These deals violate Immanuel Kant’s maxim that we treat individuals as ends not instruments. But there are obvious grey areas. What of the paid queue standers? And why do we think ticket scalping is more offensive when the tickets provide free entry to a papal mass than paid admission to a Bruce Springsteen concert?

Other transactions disturb social solidarity. The popularity of Britain’s National Health Service seems to rest on a perception that in illness “we are all in this together”. So it is best if we do not see paying patients being wheeled ahead of us into the operating theatre from their private rooms.

Other transactions are aesthetically unpleasant. We might be able to stomach the Al Capone lecture theatre but draw the line at placing a large illuminated statue of Capone in the foyer. We would prefer not to have our fire attended by an engine that says Kentucky Fried Chicken on the side, even if the hoses it brings extinguish our fire. For the same reasons, we do not want to see billboards beside country roads or have the street where we live renamed Coca-Cola Boulevard.

Sadly, my transaction with easyJet does not even meet the criterion of doing no harm to other people. I strode past more than one harassed family, toddlers in tow, who would experience slower boarding as a result of my €12 investment. But a family weekending in Nice does not really have a strong claim on my sympathy. I consoled myself with an observation from American founding father and polymath Benjamin Franklin: “So convenient a thing it is to be a reasonable creature, since it enables one to find or make a reason for everything one has a mind to do.”

请根据你所读到的文章内容，完成以下自测题目：

1.What is the writer's attitude towards Prof. Sandel's book?

A. The book was just brilliant.

B. No one can answer the queries he posed about money and transactions.

C. He failed to provide principled rationale.

D. The book cannot be properly valued by money.

答案(1)

2.What is the fundamental reason that the slave contract is unacceptable?

A. It is not enforceable.

B. It could not be really voluntary.

C. It affronts human dignity.

D. Its signee must have signed it in desperation.

答案(2)

3.The writer aprroves which of the following?

A. Britain's National Health Service.

B. "Al Capone lecture theatre".

C. The street where he lives renamed Coca-Cola Boulevard.

D. Many widely distributed financial products.

答案(3)

4.What does the citation of Benjamin Franklin in the end imply?

A. The writer was reading about him on the flight.

B. Franklin would be happy to see speedy boarding service.

C. Speedy boarding met the criterion of doing no harm to others.

D. The writer was actually feeling a little bit guilty about it.

答案(4)

* * *

(1) 答案：C.He failed to provide principled rationale.

解释：作者认为他提出的问题很有意义，但是他给出的解答“不是所有商品都可以被合理地定价”缺乏严谨的推理。ABD作者并未表达。

(2) 答案：C.It affronts human dignity.

解释：A不正确。BD都可算是“自卖为奴的契约无效”的理由，但是作者说了，如果以B为理由反对 这种交易，那么一些金融交易（投资者后来发现自己被误导了）也可算作无效了，因此这个理由不是最有力的，不是最根本的。 C才是根本理由。斯皮尔伯格的《林肯》着重讲的就是林肯推动众议院通过宪法第十三修正案废除奴隶制的故事。

第十三修正案：“第一款：在合众国境内或属合众国管辖的任何地方，不准有奴隶制或强制劳役存在，惟用于业经定罪的罪犯作为惩罚除外。第二款：国会有权以适当立法实施本条规定。”

(3) 答案：A.Britain's National Health Service.

解释：2012伦敦奥运开幕式上，600位医生和护士走上运动场，接受全场观众的欢呼。 二战后开始实施的英国全民医疗服务制度，被英国人认为“如同工业革命、莎士比亚、哈利·波特一样，成为国家软实力的象征”。 BC是作者明确表示不会喜欢的。对于D，作者说would not be bought by anyone who understood them.

(4) 答案：D.The writer was actually feeling a little bit guilty about it.

解释：AB不正确，C与事实相反。作者说，他多交了12块钱从而可以“插队”，比很多家庭和学步的小孩早上飞机， 他只好借用富兰克林的名言console自己： “做一个有理性的生物原是这样方便，因为理性能使人找到或是制造理由去干人心里想干的事。”

你觉得富兰克林会不会喜欢快捷登机服务？