1. They earn and spend, buy and sell, work and play. It’s a mass of individuals, struggling to satisfy often conflicting goals, who set the pace for the American system.
他们挣钱又花钱，既购置又出售，既工作又游玩。它是一个庞大的由个人组成的群体，这个群体在尽力满足彼此时常对立的目的，是他们在为美国制度的运作定步伐。
2. Whether the nation’s huge business machine sputters or steams ahead depends on millions of individual consumers, the real "bosses" of the American economy.
这个国家巨大的商业机器是噼啪作响要熄火还是奋力前行，这就要看数以百万计的个体消费者，即美国经济的真正“老板”了。
3. People's decisions on where to live and work, what to buy or pass over, how much to save are at the heart of the freemarket system. Business and government take their cues from consumers, adjusting plans to meet their wants and reeds.
到哪儿去生活和工作，买什么不买什么，攒多少钱等，人们对这些事情的决定是自由市场体制的核心。企业和政府紧跟消费者，调整计划来满足他们的需求。
4. Every day, the nation's 218 million consumers spend more than 3 billion dollars. Their purchases account for almost two-thirds of all the money spent each year, with government and business responsible for the rest. The trouble is that while people's needs are almost endless, their incomes aren't.
天这个国家的2.18亿消费者花费30亿美元。他们购买物品的花销差不多占每年总花销的２/3，剩下的部分是政府部门和企业部门花出去的。问题是尽管人们的需求几乎是没有限度的，但他们的收入却不是这样的。
5. Where money goes? About 70 per cent of the average household's spending goes for necessities such as housing, food, clothes and health care. To be able to afford these items and still have money left for nonessentials such as travel and entertainment, most families find themselves economizing and watching their pennies. The same problem of matching limited resources with seemingly endless demands confronts businesses and public agencies.
钱花到哪里去了？大约平均７０％的家庭开销花在了住房、食品、衣物和医疗等必需品上。能做到支付这些项目开销后仍有钱花在旅游和娱乐等非生活必需品开销上，大多数家庭觉得必须要节省和精打细算。企业部门和公共机构同样遇到了有限的钱财和似乎无穷无尽的需求要相协调这一问题。
6. That is essentially what the economy is all about -- making choices on how to use limited resources of money, manpower, machinety and materals, whether it involves a shopper deciding what to buy in the supermarket or a manufactuer deciding what line of goods to produce.
从实质上讲，这就是经济－不管是买主决定在超级市场买什么或厂家决定生产哪一种产品，都有一个如何利用有限的财力、人力、机构设备和材料选择问题。
7. Choices made in the economy involve a continuous tug of war between consumers and producers over price.
经济上的决断取舍涉及到消费者和生产厂家在价格上展开的持久拉锯战。
8. I many businesses are offering a product and there is plenty of it to satisfy the needs of all consumers, a producer will be forced to sell at a price not far above costs in order to keep from being stuck with a lot of unmarketable supplies. This is why, for example, the prices of fresh fruits and vegetables normally drop during the summer months when such produce is in abundance
如果许多企业提供一种产品并且有足够量的产品满足各种消费者的需要，生产厂家为了不至于出现许多无法上市的积压品，将被迫以高不出成本太多的价格出售产品。这就是新鲜水果和新鲜蔬菜等产品在产量丰富时在夏季里通常要掉价的原因。
9. However, a low price -- especially if it falls below what it costs a seller to make the goods -- will discourage production, perhaps drive the hig-cost producers out of business or force them to make something else.
不过，价格低了－尤其是当价格低于卖方生产产品的成本时－会挫伤生产积极性，或许会把生产成本高的生产厂家挤出生意圈或者迫使他们生产别的产品。
10. Again using an example from agriculture, farmers periodically plant less wheat or raise fewer cattle if the prices for those commodities give too little return for the costs involved.
再举一个农业方面的例子。如果农民们种的麦子或养的牛就成本而言得到的价格回报太少，他们就不时地进行调整，少种麦子或少养牛。
11. On the other hand, if there is great demand for a product and supplies are tight, businesses will be able to raise prices, their profits will increase and they will invest in new equipment to increase output. Other firms may be attacted by the prospects of good profits to produce the scarce item, thus adding new competition.
另一种情况是，如果某种产品需求量大，供应紧张，企业就能提高价格，它们的利润就会增加，它们将投入新设备以增加产量。别的公司可能被生产短缺产品有大利可图所吸引，从而增加了新的竞争。
12. That, in the simplest form, is the way the law of supply and demand operates in free-market economy. Price becomes the guidepost, telling producers what they can expect to sell at a price that more than covers their costs. At the same time, posted prices tell the consumer what he can expect to
这就是在自由市场经济中供求关系原则运行的最简单方式。价格成了导向标，告诉生产厂家他们可望什么产品高于成本的价格出售。同时，标示出的价格告知消费者可买什么商品。
13. There's a natural ceiling on prices, but it varies from one buyer to the next, depending on how much each can afford to pay and how badly he wants to buy. If a company prices its goods or services too high, some consumers will decide they're getting too little value for the money and will put off buying. "It's not worth that much" is the view heard in such situations.
价格有个自然上限，但它因买主不同而有所变化，这要依买主能否买得起和想买的程度而定。如果企业把它的商品或服务费定价太高，一些消费者会认定花钱不太值而推迟购买。在这些情况下听到的是“它不值那么多”这样的说法。
14. But if a respected brand of clothing or appliance is marked down during a sale, the reaction may be just the opposite: a stampede of purchases. Why? "It's a good buy for the money."
但在削价销售时，受人推崇的名牌服装或名牌器具降价时，可能出现正相反的反应：急急忙忙地去购买。为什么呢？“它是值得买的便宜货”。
15. Most people don't limit their purchases to what they can afford with the cash they have on hand. Nearly every household owes some money or debts perhaps in the form of a car loan, a house mortgage or charges on credit cards. On these loans, people pay an interest fate, usually so much per year based on the amount loaned. Interest, too, is a price, the price paid for the use of money, and it has to be enough to make it worthwhile for the lender to forgo use of the funds.
多数人并不是根据手头现金的承受能力而限制购买物品。几乎家家都欠了一些钱或赊了一些账，有的时以购车贷款形式赊欠的，有的是以住房抵押贷款形式赊欠的或是以信用卡付账而欠下的。人们要付贷款利息，利息每年有多少通常要依据贷款数目而定。利息也有价，是贷款利率，而且利息得足以使借贷人不用这些资金搞别的能划得来。
16. Provided that a family can meet the schedule of payments for loans or credit cards, debt can be a good thing. It allows families to enjoy now the things they want, rather than wait to accumulate the full purchase price.
如果一家子能如期偿还贷款或信用卡上欠的钱，借款就是件好事。它使人现在就可以享用他们想要的东西。
17. Buying a home is one example of a wise use of debt. It would take years for the typical family to save enough to buy a home with cash, many would never make it. A mortgage loan from a bank or other lender lets them enjoy their homes and reap the benefits of rising real-estate values in most places.
购房就是明智地利用借贷的一个例子。对于一 般家庭来说，攒够现金买房子要花好多年时间，许多家庭永远也攒不够。从银行或别的贷款机构弄到住房抵押贷款可使他们享用上自己的房子，并且多数地方的房地产价格在上涨，从而使他们从中获利。
18. Altogether, American consumers today owe about 1.3 trillion dollars.
总计起来，美国消费者现在欠债约1.3万亿美元。
19. There is some danger in taking on debts, however. When the economy slackens and employers lay off workers, families that lose breadwinners often fail to make the payments on their debts. If they fall behind too far on these obligations, they run the risk of having their houses, cars or other items taken over or repossessed by the lenders.
不过负债有一些风险。经济不景气雇主裁减工人的时候，失去养家糊口之人的家庭常常不能支付债务。如果支付欠债离欠款太远，他们的房子、轿车或其他项目有被债主收回或占用的危险。
20. But in the U.S. economy, most people are lenders as well as borrowers. Normally a family has a saving account, money that is, in effect, loaned to a savings institution in return for interest Most also have life insurance. The insurance company takes the premiums, guarantees a payment to be made when a policy-holder dies, and meanwhile invests some of the money.
不过在美国经济中，多数人既向别人借钱又借给别人钱。通常家庭都有存款单，实际上就是为了吃利息而贷给储蓄机构的钱。多数人还有人寿保险。保险公司收取保险费，保证在投保人死亡时支付一笔钱，在这时候把一些钱投出去。
21. Many experts recommend that families save no less than 5 per cent of their disposable income for future needs.
许多专家建议，为以备将来所需，家庭存款数不要少于可支配收入的５％。
22. Many countries depend much less than the U.S. does on the marketplace to decide who will sell goods and in what quantity. In Communist and Socialist countries, government agencies decide the amount, type and price of many of the goods to be produced. Many or all places of economic activity such as factories, farms, mines, utilities and transportation networks are owned chiefly by the government.
比起美国来，许多国家在决定谁出售商品，出售多少量的商品方面对市场依赖程度要小得我。在社会主义国家里政府各部门决定产品的生产数量、种类和价格。许多或全部，如工厂、农场、矿山、公共事业部门和运输网这样的经济活动场所主要掌握在政府部门。
23. Socialist countries also put much more stress on evening out the distribution of wealth than does the united States. Many services such as health care, housing and vacation trips are provided at little direct cost to citizens.
社会主义国家比美国更强调平分财富。提供的许多公共事业如医疗、住房和假日旅游直接花费市民的钱很少。
24. In the U.S., too, the role of government is growing. Corporate leaders and economists are wondering how much regulation the market system can take before it loses its ability to respond to consumer needs. But the system continues to function, and businesses continue to work for more profits and consumers for more income, knowing that they will be able to retain much of their wealth.
在美国，政府的作用在增强。公司领导和经济学家们想知道，市场制度在不失去对消费者需求作出反应能力的前提下所能承受的最大调控有多大。不过这种制度继续发挥作用。企业为了获得更多利润而继续运营。而且消费者知道他们的财富中很大部分是能够存留住的，为了有更多的收入他们继续工作着。
25. Most men and women learn early that society places a certain monetary value on various professions and skills, based again on the law of supply and demand. Doctors, who must study long years to develop specialized skills and are therefore in short supply, earn more than laborers who have little training and many competitors for the same job.
人们都知道，根据供求原则，社会给各种职业和技术定了货币价值。医生必须学好多年才掌握专门技术，且供应不足，他们也就比接受训练很少的人和许多从事同一工作的竞争对手挣得多。
26. That's not to say that good jobs and more wealth are guaranteed to Americans. The U.S. economy has been plagued periodically with two major problems: high unemployment and the rising cost of living -- inflation.
这并不是说美国保证会有好工作可做，有更多的财富可得。美国的经济不时受到两大主要问题的困扰：高失业和生活费上涨－通货膨胀。
27. The two problems are closely linked. When prices climb faster than people's incomes, families sooner or later are forced to cut back on buying in order to make ends meet.
这两个问题是密切联系的。当物价上涨超过人们的收入时，为了保证收去平衡，家家户户迟早得减少物品购买。
28. That limits what businesses can produce and how many people they can employ. It may even trigger a recession -- a temporary decline in the country's economy -- such as the one that ran from late 1973 to the spring of 1975, when millions of people were laid off from their jobs
那会限制企业能生产些什么，又限制它们能雇用多少人员。它甚至可能引发经济萧条－国家经济出现暂时性的衰退。如1973年末到1975年春的一次经济萧条有数百万人被临时裁减下来。
29 Still, despite all of the problems that exist, most Americans prefer the U.S. economic system over any other, as the results of poll after poll indicate.
尽管存在所有这些问题，多数美国人还是喜欢美国的经济体制而不是别的经济体制。这是一次次民意测验显示的结果。