【原文】Ten Principles of Economics 2: The Cost of Something Is What You Give Up to Get It
【cost】成本。The effort ,loss or damage that is involved in order to do or achieve sth.成本是一種代價(jià)。
【譯文】十大經(jīng)濟(jì)學(xué)原理1：你為了得到一物而所做的犧牲稱之為此物的成本
【原文】Because people face trade-offs, making decisions requires comparing the costs and benefits of alternative courses of action. In many cases, however, the cost of an action is not as obvious as it might first appear.
【譯文】人們做決策要有取舍，也就是要權(quán)衡可選行動(dòng)方案的成本和收益。然而，在很多情況下，一項(xiàng)行動(dòng)的成本并非顯而易見(jiàn)。
【原文】Consider the decision to go to college.The main benefits are intellectual enrichment and a lifetime of better job opportunities. But what are the costs? To answer this question, you might be tempted to add up the money you spend on tuition, books, room, and board. Yet this total does not truly represent what you give up to spend a year in college.
【board】伙食費(fèi)
【譯文】相比較于不上大學(xué)，一個(gè)人上大學(xué)的主要收益是學(xué)習(xí)到知識(shí)，并在今后的生活中獲得更好的工作機(jī)會(huì)。但是，成本是什么呢？你可能會(huì)說(shuō)你的學(xué)費(fèi)，書本費(fèi)，住房費(fèi)，伙食費(fèi)之和就是你上大學(xué)的成本。然而，這些費(fèi)用并不是你上一年大學(xué)的真正代價(jià)。
【原文】There are two problems with this calculation. First, it includes some things that are not really costs of going to college. Even if you quit school, you need a place to sleep and food to eat.Room and board are costs of going to college only to the extent that they are more expensive at collegethan elsewhere. Second, this calculation ignores the largest cost of going to college—your time. When you spend a year listening to lectures, reading textbooks, and writing papers, you cannot spend that time working at a job. For most students, the earnings they give up to attend school are the single largest cost of their education.
【譯文】上述的計(jì)算方法有兩個(gè)問(wèn)題。第一，統(tǒng)計(jì)中的一些費(fèi)用并非上大學(xué)的成本。即使你離開大學(xué)，你也要睡覺(jué)和吃飯，也需要住房和食物。只有上大學(xué)的住房費(fèi)和伙食費(fèi)比其他地方更加昂貴時(shí)，多出的部分才是上大學(xué)的成本。第二，這種計(jì)算方法忽略了上大學(xué)最大的成本——你的時(shí)間。當(dāng)你把一年的時(shí)間用于聽課，讀書，寫文章時(shí)，你就不能同時(shí)工作。對(duì)于大多數(shù)學(xué)生而言，為了上學(xué)而不得不放棄工作帶來(lái)的收入才是他們接受教育的最大的單項(xiàng)成本。
【原文】The opportunity cost of an item is what you give up to get that item. When making any decision, decision makers should be aware of the opportunity costs that accompany each possible action. In fact, they usually are. College athletes who can earn millions if they drop out of school and play professional sports are well aware that the opportunity cost of their attending college is very high.It is not surprising that they often decide that the benefit of a college education is not worth the cost.
【opportunity cost】機(jī)會(huì)成本。whatever must be givenup to obtain some item。機(jī)會(huì)成本告訴我們“不收費(fèi)”不等于“免費(fèi)”。雖然刷微信不收費(fèi)，但是這種行為浪費(fèi)了你的時(shí)間，你完全可以用這些時(shí)間去工作而獲得收入，這種收入就是你刷微信的成本。
【譯文】一物的機(jī)會(huì)成本是指你為了得到該物而所做的犧牲。決策者做任何決策都要清楚地知道每一種可能行為的機(jī)會(huì)成本。事實(shí)上，他們的確是這樣做的。大學(xué)運(yùn)動(dòng)員深知上大學(xué)的機(jī)會(huì)成本非常高，因?yàn)樗麄兩洗髮W(xué)就要放棄可以給他們帶來(lái)百萬(wàn)美元的職業(yè)運(yùn)動(dòng)的機(jī)會(huì)。他們斷定上大學(xué)帶來(lái)的收益并不能彌補(bǔ)其帶來(lái)的成本，這一點(diǎn)并不奇怪。
