一课经济学中的漂亮英文用法
抛开对经济学的真知灼见不谈，本书里面的英文用法是我学习的重点之一，这里做一个简单回顾。Hazlitt的这本书在西方久盛不衰，离不开他语言的凝练和精彩。方便起见，我直接摘录了部分语句而没有提供上下文，如果看过此书的英文版可能大概明白出处在哪，没有的话希望你能原谅我的懒惰，试试单纯从这些例句中能不能学到些东西。对我自己而言，或许我会在下次写论文的时候参照一下，看看有没有能用上的短语或句法。我自己的一些理解放在的括号里面。
1 精彩的语句，核心论点
It was simply one more illustration of Santayana's aphorism that those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.
这也再次印证了作家桑塔亚纳的格言：忘记历史，意味着重蹈覆辙。
Theories as false as this are never held with logical consistency, but they do great harm because they are held at all.
类似这样的错误理论，在逻辑上从来站不住脚，但所有人都执迷不悟，可见这些谬论危害之大。
（never held with logical consistency, 逻辑上不可行， held at all，被所有人支持）
"The proposition is so very manifest", Adam Smith continued, "that it seems ridiculous to take any pain to prove it."
“这些提议如此不言自明”，亚当斯密说，“以至于费心思证明它们倒是一件滑稽的事。”
（manifest和self-evident是两个很有意思的词。在逻辑上很强，但是用起来需要小心，不是所有的道理都可以用这两个词。self-evident最有名气的一处应该是在独立宣言里，We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal，人生而平等，这不言自明。多么让人振奋啊。）
These questions and conclusions stem from the fallacy of looking at one industry in isolation, of looking at the tree and ignoring the forest.
...只见树木不见森林。
It would be idiotic to go on pilling up mountains of surplus shoes, simply because we can do it, while hundreds of more urgent needs went unfilled.
仅仅是因为我们可以做这事，就不停的制造成堆的鞋子，这种做法很愚蠢，尚且不提我们有更多急切的事情需要完成。
A premium is put on dishonesty.
这是对不诚实的奖励。
Yet profits are the form of income toward which there is most hostility.
利润是最让人憎恶的一种所得。
If the money was raised by taxation, we saw, then for every dollar that the government spent on public works on less dollar was spent by the taxpayers to meet their own wants, and for every public job created on private job was destroyed.
（奥巴马和罗姆尼争论的热点之一，public sector, private sector, 也是凯恩斯和哈耶克经济学理论的一大区别，是强调自由竞争还是国家干预。Hazlitt显然是支持自由竞争的，正如文中他所说，每一个政府职位的设立，都伴随着一个私营经济工作的毁灭。）
The whole argument of this book may be summed up in the statement that in studying the effects of any given economic proposal we must trace not merely the immediate results but the results in the long run, not merely the primary consequences but the secondary consequences, and not merely the effects on some specially group but the effects on everyone.
本书的主旨可以概括为：在研究任何经济政策的影响时，不仅要考察提案的短期结果，也要看到长期影响；不仅要探讨最重要的后果，也要考虑次要的后果；不仅要看对特定人群的影响，也要看对所有人的影响。
（发改委，计生委，石油、电力、房地产部门，几乎中国所有的问题都需要把这几条列为政策制定的大原则。）
2. 起承转合
语言讲究起承转合，起承转合很多时候来自于设身处地来看问题。Hazlitt很多时候会先从读者的角度出发阐述问题可能看起来的样子（往往是失真或者干脆是错误的），但是他的语气让人觉得亲切，他的态度让人舒服，你会说，对，就是这样，不过你也在想，是不是真的这样呢？简简单单一句话，可以起到很多作用，Hazlitt常用的句法有：
At first glance the case for this type of loan may seem a strong one.
乍看起来，这种贷款有些道理。
Their spokesmen preset a plan in their favor; and it seems at first so absurd that disinterested winters do not trouble to expose it.
利益集团的代言人会提出对自己有利的计划，那些计划一开始显得如此荒唐，以至于没什么利益关系的人都会懒的去戳穿它。
（这里我省略了一部分下文。荒谬的计划出台之后，下一步是利益集团的游说，买通各类专家，大说特说，同时对每一个说真话的人都猛烈抨击，而且万一持反对意见的人犯了任何小错误都会被抓出来游街。空气风声鹤唳，没有人在说其他言论。听来是是不是似曾相识？中国很多政策是不是也是这个策略？）
It may be thought that we can escape these consequences by offering "work relief" instead of "home relief"; but we merely change the nature of consequences.
也许有人会认为，我们可以提供“工作救济”而不是“家庭救济”来避免上述结果；但这只是换汤不换药。
在进入主题之后，他会接下来说明为什么第一种是不实的描述，真实的境况是，或者真正的原因是XXX。在这个时候，读者或许已经欣然接受了他的想法。在这时，他一针见血式的论述往往伴随着对之前错误理论的回顾。这类转折性的语言，Hazlitt常用的有：
... but, it turns out, ...
...但是，结果却是....
All credit is debt. ... They would seem considerably less inviting if they were referred to by the second name instead of by the first.
所有的信贷都是债务。如果我们直接用第二个名字而不是第一个，那么那些提案就不会这么受欢迎。
（改头换面是这些人的常用伎俩。国内也有诸多此类事情）
They encourage people to "buy" houses that they cannot really afford.
他们鼓励人们去“购买”他们根本买不起的房子。
（中国房地产的现状）
Nonetheless, the argument we have just quoted will not stand examination.
然而，我们刚刚引用的论断经不起检验。
The belief that machines cause unemployment, when held with any logical consistency, leads to preposterous conclusions.
The real result of the machine is to increase production, to raise the standard of living, to increase economic welfare.
The spread-the-work schemes, in brief, rest on the same sort of illusion that we have been considering.
... the central fallacy with which this book is concerned. It was that of considering merely the immediate effects of a tariff on special groups, and neglecting to consider its long run effects on the whole community.
3. 漂亮的开头
..., for the sake of simplicity, ...
Allied to this fallacy is that the belief that ...
These loans are of two main types. One is ..., the other is ...
But the matter does not and cannot rest at this stage.
Another evidence is that ...
It is obvious ....
It should be equally clear that, as a consequence, other industries must lose what the X industry gains.
To simplify this as much as possible, let us consider the problem that ....
The housing situation will deteriorate in other ways.
... but we shall view the subject from a different angle.
Now let us look at the matter the other way round, and see the effect of imposing a tariff in the first place.
But it would do no good unless we understood clearly why they were wrong.
4. 常用的短语
at bottom
at best
consist of XXX, of XXX and of XXX.
acts of shortsightedness
..., moreover, ...
... are rigidly selected by a process of survival of the fittest.
In other words, ...
In brief, ...
..., and therefore, ...
... as we began by pointing out, ...
From another point of view, ...
..., out of which ...
... did immense harm.
Not only should we have to regard all further technical progress as a calamity; we should have to regard all past technical progress with equal horror.
It forces investors to place their money where the returns seem less promising o them than in the X industry.
1 精彩的语句，核心论点
It was simply one more illustration of Santayana's aphorism that those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.
这也再次印证了作家桑塔亚纳的格言：忘记历史，意味着重蹈覆辙。
Theories as false as this are never held with logical consistency, but they do great harm because they are held at all.
类似这样的错误理论，在逻辑上从来站不住脚，但所有人都执迷不悟，可见这些谬论危害之大。
（never held with logical consistency, 逻辑上不可行， held at all，被所有人支持）
"The proposition is so very manifest", Adam Smith continued, "that it seems ridiculous to take any pain to prove it."
“这些提议如此不言自明”，亚当斯密说，“以至于费心思证明它们倒是一件滑稽的事。”
（manifest和self-evident是两个很有意思的词。在逻辑上很强，但是用起来需要小心，不是所有的道理都可以用这两个词。self-evident最有名气的一处应该是在独立宣言里，We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal，人生而平等，这不言自明。多么让人振奋啊。）
These questions and conclusions stem from the fallacy of looking at one industry in isolation, of looking at the tree and ignoring the forest.
...只见树木不见森林。
It would be idiotic to go on pilling up mountains of surplus shoes, simply because we can do it, while hundreds of more urgent needs went unfilled.
仅仅是因为我们可以做这事，就不停的制造成堆的鞋子，这种做法很愚蠢，尚且不提我们有更多急切的事情需要完成。
A premium is put on dishonesty.
这是对不诚实的奖励。
Yet profits are the form of income toward which there is most hostility.
利润是最让人憎恶的一种所得。
If the money was raised by taxation, we saw, then for every dollar that the government spent on public works on less dollar was spent by the taxpayers to meet their own wants, and for every public job created on private job was destroyed.
（奥巴马和罗姆尼争论的热点之一，public sector, private sector, 也是凯恩斯和哈耶克经济学理论的一大区别，是强调自由竞争还是国家干预。Hazlitt显然是支持自由竞争的，正如文中他所说，每一个政府职位的设立，都伴随着一个私营经济工作的毁灭。）
The whole argument of this book may be summed up in the statement that in studying the effects of any given economic proposal we must trace not merely the immediate results but the results in the long run, not merely the primary consequences but the secondary consequences, and not merely the effects on some specially group but the effects on everyone.
本书的主旨可以概括为：在研究任何经济政策的影响时，不仅要考察提案的短期结果，也要看到长期影响；不仅要探讨最重要的后果，也要考虑次要的后果；不仅要看对特定人群的影响，也要看对所有人的影响。
（发改委，计生委，石油、电力、房地产部门，几乎中国所有的问题都需要把这几条列为政策制定的大原则。）
2. 起承转合
语言讲究起承转合，起承转合很多时候来自于设身处地来看问题。Hazlitt很多时候会先从读者的角度出发阐述问题可能看起来的样子（往往是失真或者干脆是错误的），但是他的语气让人觉得亲切，他的态度让人舒服，你会说，对，就是这样，不过你也在想，是不是真的这样呢？简简单单一句话，可以起到很多作用，Hazlitt常用的句法有：
At first glance the case for this type of loan may seem a strong one.
乍看起来，这种贷款有些道理。
Their spokesmen preset a plan in their favor; and it seems at first so absurd that disinterested winters do not trouble to expose it.
利益集团的代言人会提出对自己有利的计划，那些计划一开始显得如此荒唐，以至于没什么利益关系的人都会懒的去戳穿它。
（这里我省略了一部分下文。荒谬的计划出台之后，下一步是利益集团的游说，买通各类专家，大说特说，同时对每一个说真话的人都猛烈抨击，而且万一持反对意见的人犯了任何小错误都会被抓出来游街。空气风声鹤唳，没有人在说其他言论。听来是是不是似曾相识？中国很多政策是不是也是这个策略？）
It may be thought that we can escape these consequences by offering "work relief" instead of "home relief"; but we merely change the nature of consequences.
也许有人会认为，我们可以提供“工作救济”而不是“家庭救济”来避免上述结果；但这只是换汤不换药。
在进入主题之后，他会接下来说明为什么第一种是不实的描述，真实的境况是，或者真正的原因是XXX。在这个时候，读者或许已经欣然接受了他的想法。在这时，他一针见血式的论述往往伴随着对之前错误理论的回顾。这类转折性的语言，Hazlitt常用的有：
... but, it turns out, ...
...但是，结果却是....
All credit is debt. ... They would seem considerably less inviting if they were referred to by the second name instead of by the first.
所有的信贷都是债务。如果我们直接用第二个名字而不是第一个，那么那些提案就不会这么受欢迎。
（改头换面是这些人的常用伎俩。国内也有诸多此类事情）
They encourage people to "buy" houses that they cannot really afford.
他们鼓励人们去“购买”他们根本买不起的房子。
（中国房地产的现状）
Nonetheless, the argument we have just quoted will not stand examination.
然而，我们刚刚引用的论断经不起检验。
The belief that machines cause unemployment, when held with any logical consistency, leads to preposterous conclusions.
The real result of the machine is to increase production, to raise the standard of living, to increase economic welfare.
The spread-the-work schemes, in brief, rest on the same sort of illusion that we have been considering.
... the central fallacy with which this book is concerned. It was that of considering merely the immediate effects of a tariff on special groups, and neglecting to consider its long run effects on the whole community.
3. 漂亮的开头
..., for the sake of simplicity, ...
Allied to this fallacy is that the belief that ...
These loans are of two main types. One is ..., the other is ...
But the matter does not and cannot rest at this stage.
Another evidence is that ...
It is obvious ....
It should be equally clear that, as a consequence, other industries must lose what the X industry gains.
To simplify this as much as possible, let us consider the problem that ....
The housing situation will deteriorate in other ways.
... but we shall view the subject from a different angle.
Now let us look at the matter the other way round, and see the effect of imposing a tariff in the first place.
But it would do no good unless we understood clearly why they were wrong.
4. 常用的短语
at bottom
at best
consist of XXX, of XXX and of XXX.
acts of shortsightedness
..., moreover, ...
... are rigidly selected by a process of survival of the fittest.
In other words, ...
In brief, ...
..., and therefore, ...
... as we began by pointing out, ...
From another point of view, ...
..., out of which ...
... did immense harm.
Not only should we have to regard all further technical progress as a calamity; we should have to regard all past technical progress with equal horror.
It forces investors to place their money where the returns seem less promising o them than in the X industry.
有关键情节透露
