当我们愤愤于世界上８０％的财富集中于２％的人手中时，我们可曾想过这也是全人类（包括资本家）不懈努力而使社会产生的发展和进步？“工业的进步、机器的改进、所有新时代的伟大奇迹，对于有钱人来说，关系较少。古代希腊的富翁，从现代的供水管道得不到什么好处：有跑步的仆人提水代替自来水。电视机和收音机也不足道，罗马的贵族们能够在家里享受到最好的乐师和演员的表演，能够把最出色的艺术家留在家里。现成的服装、超级市场和其他许多现代文明给他们的生活增添不了什么色彩。他们也许欢迎运输和医疗上的改进，而其他一切西方资本主义的伟大成就，主要是增长了普通老百姓的利益。这些成就为人民群众提供了方便和乐趣，而在过去，这些只是富人和权势者专有的特权（见这里）。”
大规模的排队，如中国的春运，是学习价格理论和研究公共政策的优良范本，值得每一位对经济、舆论、政策等领域感兴趣的朋友深思。本站以明快的方式回答各种常见问题，包括：（1）回家过年是不是刚性需求；（2）车票提价有没有增加乘客负担；（3）黄牛党有没有责任；（4）垄断产业的产品涨价合理吗；（5）春运难题与铁路垄断的关系；（6）火车票低价造成的浪费在哪里；（7）应该如何有效地帮助穷人；（8）租和寻租的经济学概念；（9）关于排队的理论文献等。欢迎浏览！
科斯（Ronald H. Coase）：“我被反垄断法烦透了。假如价格涨了，法官就说是‘垄断定价’；价格跌了，就说是‘掠夺定价’；价格不变，就说是‘勾结定价’”。(Ronald Coase said he had gotten tired of anti-trust because when the prices went up the judges said it was monopoly, when the prices went down they said it was predatory pricing, and when they stayed the same they said it was tacit collusion. — Source: William Landes, “The Fire of Truth: A Remembrance of Law and Econ at Chicago”, JLE (1981)) 详见这里和这里。
布坎南（James M. Buchanan）：需求量和价格之间的反向关系，是经济科学的核心命题，它体现了这样的预设，即人类的选择行为足够理性，以致是可以预测的。没有一个物理学家会说“水往上流”，也没有一个自重的经济学家会说“提高最低工资可以增加就业”。这种说法，要是认真地生发下去，将无异于全盘否定了经济学，使其科学含义荡然无存；要是这样，经济学家除了撰写迎合意识形态偏好的文章，就别无可为了。值得庆幸的是，只有一小撮经济学家愿意背弃两个世纪的经济学教诲；我们尚未堕落成一群随营的娼妓（详见这里）。
Gary Becker: The claim that the crisis was due to an insufficient level of regulation is not convincing. For example, commercial banks have been more regulated than most other financial institutions, yet commercial banks performed no better than other classes of financial institutions. At the other extreme, hedge funds have been the least regulated, and on the whole they did better than most others in the financial sector. One major problem with regulations is the regulators themselves. See here.
Benjamin Powell at Washington Times: America’s move to act swiftly and boldly misses the point. Bank bailouts and fiscal stimulus bills don’t work because they strive to maintain the status quo. But the status quo is the problem and exactly what needs to be corrected. The U.S. housing bubble drew too many workers and too much capital into construction and related industries. So funding public works projects to keep those companies in business is the wrong solution. See here. (HT: EconLog)
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