经济学人325:小本生意的旺市与淡市 繁文缛节让人忧郁

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　　小本生意的旺市与淡市

　　Red tape blues¹

　　繁文缛节让人忧郁

　　Small businesses fret² less about taxes than over-regulation

　　小本生意担心监管过度问题多过税收

　　IAN TONER, an architect in Philadelphia, recently went to city offices for a permit to build a stoop for a client's home. The city, he learned, had just imposed new requirements:he would have to get maps from gas, electric, water and other utilities to ensure the stoop would not disturb their underground lines and then resubmit his application. A process he thought would take a day took more than two weeks.

　　最近，费城建筑师伊恩·托纳前往市政府办公室为其客户获得房屋门廊建设许可证。伊恩了解到，费城刚刚颁布了新的要求：申请者得提交天然气、电气、水气等公司的地图，确保门廊不会影响地下线，然后重新提交申请。他原本以为这个过程只需花费一天，而事实上却花了大概两个礼拜。

　　小本生意的旺市与淡市.jpg

　　That's not all. Other new rules require that he prove that his builder has general liability, workers'compensation and car insurance, and has paid all his taxes. Four times a year he must set aside a half day to ensure he is paying the state's and city's myriad³ taxes correctly. Mr Toner doesn't question the need for rules and taxes; what galls⁴ him is the time and hassle involved in complying with them. “The information exists all over the place and the burden is on me not just to gather it but interpret it. I'm not going to leave here because of this, but they're all things that could turn a person off of coming here.”

　　这还不是全部的。其他新的条例要求，申请者还要证明建筑工人享有责任保险、劳工补偿以及汽车保险，并且全部交过税。一年四次，他得留出半天时间来确保他准确支付了州政府以及市政度各种繁杂的税。托纳先生并不是在纠结这些条例和税收的必要性；让他觉得受到羞辱的是遵守背后所花费的时间与麻烦。“信息随处可见，我所承受的压力不仅仅是去收集这些信息，更多的是去解释。我不打算因为这个就离开，但是那些却是阻碍人们来此的力量。”

　　America's states and cities have traditionally tried to attract businesses by offering them tax breaks and other cash incentives⁵. Yet there may be a more effective way, and one which puts no strain on stretched budgets: make life simpler.

　　沿袭传统，美国的州和城市通过税收减免政策和其他的现金奖励措施来尽量吸引招商。但是，或许还有另外一种更有效的方法，不对紧张的预算施压，即生活更简单。

　　Thumbtack, a website that matches customers to businesses, and the Kauffman Foundation, a think-tank, asks thousands of small businesses annually⁶ about local requirements for hiring, regulations, zoning, licences, health insurance and training. They have enough data to compile (somewhat subjective) “business climate” grades for 38 states and 82 cities.

　　美国一家本地服务网上交易市场—Thumbtack(图钉)，以及发挥智囊团作用的考夫曼基金会每年会向成百上千小本生意打听情况，询问当地对于招聘、规章制度、分区制、健康保险以及上岗培训的一些要求。他们有足够的数据对美国38个州以及82个城市编译“商业环境”（有点主观）。

　　One surprising finding is how little local tax rates matter. Nearly two-thirds of respondents say they pay their “fair share” of taxes, which the survey-takers reckon means they don't feel over- or undertaxed. But many complain about the difficulty of complying with complex regulations: this was a strong predictor of how small businesses rank their states.

　　令人吃惊的是，当地税收无关痛痒。近六成受访者称，他们支付问卷者认为的不高也不低的税收。但是许多人抱怨遵循复杂法规的难处：这是一个很强烈地预兆，表明了小本生意如何去评价他们所在的州。

　　To be sure, low-tax states such as Texas generally score well, while high-tax states such as California and Illinois flunk⁷ their tests. This may be because the kind of politicians who like high taxes also like bossing people around. But not always. Minnesota, a high-tax state, earns a respectable “B” for business climate, partly because it is easy to start a business there. Washington and Florida, both low-tax states, earn a “C” and a “C+”. Entrepreneurs fault Washington's harsh zoning laws and gripe that in Florida new firms must jump through hoops⁸ like dolphins at SeaWorld.

　　可以肯定的是，像德克萨斯州这样低税收的地方通常排名靠前，评价高；相比而言，想加州和伊利诺斯州这样高税收的却未能博得民心。或许是因为喜欢高税收的政治家们很喜欢发号施令。但也有的特例，比如，明尼苏达州税收高，却赢得了一个令人尊敬的“B”级商业环境等级；可能是因为这里创业很容易。像华盛顿和佛罗里达这样低税收的，却分别得了一个“C”和一个“C+”。企业家把责任归咎于华盛顿苛刻的分区制，还抱怨佛罗里达州的新公司就像海洋世界里海豚跳铁圈一样。

　　The lesson for politicians is: “no matter what else you do, make things easy,” says Jon Lieber of Thumbtack. “This may seem obvious but a lot of governments don't do it right. Don't require a plumber⁹ to spend two days at city hall pulling permits when he could be doing jobs.”

　　来自图钉的约翰·烈博说，政治家得到的教训是：“不管你做了什么，简化它们。”他继续说，“这看起来显而易见，但很多政府官员却无法做到。不要指望水管工会花两天的时间在市政厅请求许可证，特别是在他们还可以做别的事的时候。”

　　Too often, state websites are confusing and bureaucrats¹⁰ unhelpful. Dennis Kessler, an accountant in New Jersey¹¹, says he usually can't get through on the telephone to the relevant department. When he does, the information is often misleading or incomplete. He recently spent 30 hours trying to help a client change its corporate¹² status without getting a different federal tax-identification number—only to discover that this is impossible.

　　州政府网站时常让人费解，而且官僚们常常无所用处。新泽西的会计丹尼斯认为，通常，他无法打通相关部门的电话。当他打通的时候，回馈的信息往往是让人误解的或者不完整。最近，他花了30个小时帮助一名客户在未获得不同的联邦纳税人识别号的情况下去改变法人地位，但最后他发现一切都是徒劳的。

　　Licensing¹³ rules are a headache. In theory, they protect the public from incompetence¹⁴, which is useful if you are hiring a doctor. But increasingly they protect incumbents¹⁵ from competition—the requirement to have a licence raises an occupation's wages by 18%, according to Morris Kleiner and Alan Krueger, two economists¹⁶. In the 1950s less than 5% of workers required state licences; now 35% do.

　　许可证管理是一件很头痛的事。经济学家莫里斯和奥兰认为，理论上讲，这些制度保障了大众，特别是当你雇佣了一名医生，它们可以避免无能医生。渐渐地，这些制度保护现任者不受竞争力的影响；即对执照的要求使得工资上涨18个百分点。在20世纪50年代，不到5%的工人需要证明，现在增加到35%。

　　Some make no sense. Celeste Kelly, a horse lover, began offering horse massage¹⁷, a subject she had studied privately¹⁸, in 2006; she charges $55 per session. In 2012 the Arizona State Veterinary Medical Examining Board ordered her to “cease and desist” or face heavy fines and possible criminal charges. According to the Institute for Justice (IJ), a libertarian law firm which is suing the board on her behalf, Arizona does not require vets²⁰ to learn massage, and Ms Kelly may offer it for free; she simply can't charge for it unless she's a vet¹⁹. “Veterinarians I know think it's ridiculous,” she complains. “It's their political arm that has crafted legislation to be self-protective.”

　　一些制度纯属无稽之谈。骑马爱好者克莱斯特·凯里开始提供为马按摩的服务，这项服务是她于2006年个人研究的；按摩一次55美元。2012年，亚利桑那州兽医医学研究委员会要求凯里停止这项服务，否则将面临高价罚款以及牢狱之灾。据司法部部门，一家持自由论的律师事务所帮助凯里控告该委员会，亚利桑那州并没有要求兽医要学按摩，而且凯里小姐也可能会免费提供该服务；除非她是兽医，不然她不能收费。凯里抱怨道，“我所认识的兽医觉得这很荒唐。这是他们获得自保的政治手段。”

　　State licensing regimes vary widely. Louisiana requires licences for 70% of low-wage occupations, according to IJ, including barber, bartender and cosmetologist. In Wyoming, it is a more modest 24%. In Hawaii, licences require an average of 724 days of experience and education; in Pennsylvania, 113. Enforcement is uneven²¹, too.

　　许可证体制变化莫测。依据司法部门，路易斯安那州要求包括理发师、酒保以及美容师在内的占70%的低收入职业持有许可证明。在怀俄明州，该比例较少，为24%。在夏威夷州，执照获得的资格要求是工作经历加教育经历724天；在宾夕法尼亚州，113天。执行过程更是入目不堪。

　　Changes to regulations have little effect on economic growth in the short run—cyclical influences such as the state of the housing market or the fortunes of a particular industry (high-tech in California, oil in Texas) matter more. But in the long run, business-friendliness makes a difference: one study found that states that rank better on indices of taxes, costs and regulations enjoy stronger job growth, after filtering out the influence of industry composition and the weather. Globally, countries that rank higher in the World Bank's surveys of the ease of doing business grow faster.

　　从短期看，条规的变化对经济增长无影响，而周期性的影响因素比如房地产市场的状态或者一个特定行业的财富积累（加州的高科技，德克萨斯州的石油），却更重要。但是，从长期看，商业友好型却有不同：一项研究发现，排除行业类别组成与天气因素影响，税收、成本和监管指数排名较前的州享有更强的就业增长。全球范围内，在世界银行一项关于做生意的方便性的调查中，排名更靠前的过家发展更快。

　　Lowering barriers to entry for new businesses gives consumers more choice and cheaper prices. A gourmet-food-truck fad²² began in Los Angeles with $2 Korean tacos in 2008, and has thrived because the city is flexible about where such trucks can park. By contrast, Chicago forbids food trucks from operating within 200 feet of a bricks-and-mortar restaurant, and requires them to have a GPS to ensure compliance²³, which makes life very hard for them in the downtown business district.

　　降低创业的门槛让消费者享有更多的选择，更实惠的价格。一股美食车潮因2美元的韩国烤肉于2008年在洛杉矶流行开来，这是因为洛杉矶这座城市随处可适应美食车。相比而言，芝加哥却禁止快餐车停留在实体餐厅的200英尺范围内，还要求他们配有GPS定位以确保他们遵守了上述条例，而这一切让市中心商业区的人们生活艰难。

　　Businesses lobby for lots of things they should not have: handouts²⁴ from the taxpayer²⁵, handicaps imposed on their rivals. But it is hard to find fault in their plea for simpler rules, swifter bureaucratic²⁶ decisions, government websites that a normal person can navigate²⁷ and officials who actually answer the phone.

　　企业为了许多不属于他们的东西四处游说：纳税人的救济金，给对手造成的障碍。然而，我们很难去指责他们想要简单条例、更迅速的官僚决策、普通人可以使用的政府网站以及可以接通电话的官员。

　　Clearing away old rules is hard. Their benefits tend to be concentrated (eg, when they protect incumbents); their costs dispersed²⁸ (slightly higher prices affect all consumers, but only a little). States and cities can, however, slow the pace at which new rules proliferate²⁹, for example by estimating their economic impact before enacting³⁰ them. Last year Iowa's governor vetoed a bill that would have required licences for drug-abuse counsellors, and Arizona made life easier for firms operating in multiple cities with separate sales taxes by limiting them to one tax form and one audit³¹.

　　废除老规矩是很难的。老规矩的受益者们往往很集中（当要保护现任者的时候）；所需成本分散（稍高的价钱会影响所有的消费者）。然而，州政府以及市政府却可以放慢新规则的制定速度，例如，在制定之前可以先评估其经济影响。去年爱荷华州的官员投票通过一项法案，其内容要求吸毒人员的顾问持有执照；亚利桑那州放宽对公司的要求，通过限制公司只有一个税种和一种审计，允许其在多个城市支付单独的销售税。

　　The difficulty is that many rules purport³² to protect the public: from shoddy services, dangerous products or even death. Even if the cost is high and the risk remote, no politician wants to be accused of compromising public safety. Last year Mike Pence, Indiana's Republican governor, vetoed the licensing of diabetes³³ educators and anaesthesiologist assistants, on the grounds the new rules would raise barriers to business and require additional bureaucracy. But a year later, he signed into law a modified version of the measure, minus the extra bureaucracy but otherwise much the same.

　　许多条例制定出来是为了保护民众免受赝品、危险的产品以及死亡的威胁，而这恰恰也是难点。即使成本高，危险遥不可及，没有一个政客愿意因为危害公共安全而被起诉。去年，印第安纳州共和党州长麦克·彭斯投票糖尿病教育者以及麻醉学者助理的许可证，理由是新的法规会给商业活动造成困难，并会增加额外的官员。但是一年以后，他签署了一份修改版的法案，减少多余的官僚机构，其他方面则一样。

　　1.comply with 遵守；遵从；依从

　　例句:They refused to comply with the UN resolution.

　　他们拒绝遵守联合国的决议。

　　2.because of 因为；由于

　　例句:The man was known to the police because of previous convictions.

　　因为有犯罪前科，警察们都认识这个人。

　　3.such as 例如；诸如

　　例句:Issues such as these were not really his concern.

　　他其实并不关心诸如此类的问题。

　　4.according to 根据；按照；依照

　　例句:The route that the boatmen choose varies according to the water level.

　　船夫选择的路线会随水位的变化而有所不同。

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