【金句】Friedrich Hayek - What today may seem extravagance or even waste, because it is enjoyed by the..

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• 來源1 - x.com/fahayeksays/st...

• 來源2 - www.mises.at/static/...

What today may seem extravagance or even waste, because it is enjoyed by the few and even undreamed of by the masses, is payment for the experimentation with a style of living that will eventually be available to many.

今天看來過於奢華甚至浪費的東西，全因為只有少數人享受，甚至大眾連想像都未曾有過，正是去嘗試一種最終會普及開來的生活方式的代價。

額外內容

完整段落

The rapid economic advance that we have come to expect seems in a large measure to be the result of this inequality and to be impossible without it. Progress at such a fast rate cannot proceed on a uniform front but must take place in echelon fashion, with some far ahead of the rest. The reason for this is concealed by our habit of regarding economic progress chiefly as an accumulation of ever greater quantities of goods and equipment. But the rise of our standard of life is due at least as much to an increase in knowledge which enables us not merely to consume more of the same things but to use different things, and often things we did not even know before. And though the growth of income depends in part on the accumulation of capital, more probably depends on our learning to use our resources more effectively and for new purposes.

我們所期望的快速經濟進步，在很大程度上似乎是這種不平等的結果，而且在沒有它的情況下是不可能的。以如此快的速度前進的進展不能由一個統一的前線來進行，而是必須分層次地進行，其中有些人遠遠領先於其他人。這個原因被我們習慣上把經濟進步主要看作是積累越來越多的商品和設備所掩蓋了。但我們的生活水平提高至少同樣取決於知識的增加，這使我們不僅能消費更多的相同物品，還能使用不同的物品，甚至是之前連想都沒想過的物品。雖然收入增長部分取決於資本的積累，但更可能取決於我們學習以更有效的方式使用資源以及為新的目的而努力。

The growth of knowledge is of such special importance because, while the material resources will always remain scarce and will have to be reserved for limited purposes, the uses of new knowledge (where we do not make them artificially scarce by patents of monopoly) are unrestricted. Knowledge, once achieved, becomes gratuitously available for the benefit of all. It is through this free gift of the knowledge acquired by the experiments of some members of society that general progress is made possible, that the achievements of those who have gone before facilitate the advance of those who follow.

知識的增長具有特別的重要性，因為物質資源將永遠稀缺，需要保留用於有限的目的；而新知識的使用（在我們不人工地通過專利的壟斷使其稀缺的情況下）則沒有限制。一旦獲得知識，就會免費地成為所有人的利益。就是通過社會某些成員進行的實驗所獲得的知識自由贈予，才使一般進步成為可能，使先前的成就者方便了後進者的前進。

At any stage of this process there will always be many things we already, know how to produce but which are still too expensive to provide for more than a few. And at an early stage they can be made only through an outlay of resources equal to many times the share of total income that, with an approximately equal distribution, would go to the few who would benefit from them. At first, a new good is commonly "the caprice of the chosen few before it becomes a public need and forms part of the necessities of life. For the luxuries of today are the necessities of tomorrow." Furthermore, the new things will often become available to the greater part of the people only because for some time they have been the luxuries of the few.

在這個過程的任何一個階段，總有許多我們已經知道如何生產但仍然太貴無法提供給大多數人。在早期，這些物品只能通過相當於整體收入中少數人會得到的份額數倍的資源投入來生產。最初，新產品通常「是選定的少數人的突發奇想，在成為公眾需求並成為生活必需品之前，即今日的奢侈品是明日的必需品」。此外，新事物往往只有在它們成為少數人的奢侈品一段時間後，才會對大多數人開放。

If we, in the wealthier countries, today can provide facilities and conveniences for most which not long ago would have been physically impossible to produce in such quantities, this is in large measure the direct consequence of the fact that they were first made for a few. All the conveniences of a comfortable home, of our means of transportation and communication, of entertainment and enjoyment, we could produce at first only in limited quantities; but it was in doing this that we gradually learned to make them or similar things at a much smaller outlay of resources and thus became able to supply them to the great majority. A large part of the expenditure of the rich, though not intended for that end, thus serves to defray the cost of the experimentation with the new things that, as a result, can later be made available to the poor.

如果我們在富裕國家今天能夠提供大部分人都能享受的設施和便利，而這在不長的時間內在物理上無法以這種數量生產，這在很大程度上直接來自於它們最初是為少數人製作的事實。我們可以生產的所有舒適家庭設施、交通運輸和通信手段、娛樂和享受，我們最初只能以有限的數量生產；但正是通過這樣做，我們逐漸學會了以資源投入遠遠較少的方式生產它們或類似的物品，並因此能夠向大多數人提供。富人大部分開支雖然不是為這個目的而設計的，但其中很大一部分幫助承擔了嘗試新事物所需的費用，而這些新事物最終可以向貧困人口開放。

The important point is not merely that we gradually learn to make cheaply on a large scale what we already know how to make expensively in small quantities but that only from an advanced position does the next range of desires and possibilities become visible, so that the selection of new goals and the effort toward their achievement will begin long before the majority can strive for them. If what they will want after their present goals are realized is soon to be made available, it is necessary that the developments that will bear fruit for the masses in twenty or fifty years' time should be guided by the views of people who are already in the position of enjoying them.

關鍵點不僅是我們逐漸學會以低成本大規模生產我們已經知道如何在小數量下昂貴生產的物品，而且從一個先進的位置開始，下一步的渴望和可能性才會顯現出來，這樣選擇新的目標和努力實現它們將比大多數人能夠追求它們提前很久開始。如果他們在實現當前目標後想要的是很快就能被提供，那麼必須確保二十或五十年後能為大眾帶來成果的發展受到已經處於享受這些東西位置的人們視角的引導。（Pika: 後面這句我不懂）

If today in the United States or western Europe the relatively poor can have a car or a refrigerator, an airplane trip or a radio, at the cost of a reasonable part of their income, this was made possible because in the past others with larger incomes were able to spend on what was then a luxury. The path of advance is greatly eased by the fact that it has been trodden before. It is because scouts have found the goal that the road can be built for the less lucky or less energetic. What today may seem extravagance or even waste, because it is enjoyed by the few and even undreamed of by the masses, is payment for the experimentation with a style, of living that will eventually be available to many. The range of what will be tried and later developed, the fund of experience that will become available to all, is greatly extended by the unequal distribution of present benefits; and the rate of advance will be greatly increased if the first steps are taken long before the majority can profit from them. Many of the improvements would indeed never become a possibility for all if they had not long before been available to some. If all had to wait for better things until they could be provided for all, that day would in many instances never come. Even the poorest today owe their relative material well-being to the results of past inequality.

如果今天在美國或西歐，相對貧窮的人可以花合理的一部分收入擁有一輛車或冰箱、一次飛機旅行或一台收音機，這成為可能的是因為過去有更大收入的人能夠在當時被視為奢侈的物品上花錢。前進的道路因已走過而大大輕鬆。正是因為探索者找到了目標，所以不太幸運或不夠積極的人也能享受這條道路。今天看來過於奢華甚至浪費的東西，全因為只有少數人享受，甚至大眾連想像都未曾有過，正是去嘗試一種最終會普及開來的生活方式的代價。將被嘗試並後來發展的範圍、所有人將可獲得的經驗基金，由於當前福利的不平等分配而大大擴大；如果最早步驟在大多數人能夠從中受益之前就已採取，進展速度將大大增加。許多改進如果沒有提前對某些人可用，永遠不會成為所有人的可能性。如果所有人都必須等待更好的事物直到它們能為所有人提供，在許多情況下這一天永遠也不會到來。即使是最貧窮的人今天所擁有的相對物質福祉也歸功於過去的不平等成果。