2006年12月2作业

 

The Definition of "Price"

　　Prices determine how resources are to be used. They are also the means by which products and services that are in limited supply are rationed among buyers. The price system of the United States is a complex network composed of the prices of all the products bought and sold in the economy as well as those of a myriad of services, including labor, professional, transportation, and public-utility services. The interrelationships of all these prices make up the "system" of prices. The price of any particular product or service is linked to a broad, complicated system of prices in which everything seems to depend more or less upon everything else.

　　价格决定了资源怎么被利用，它也决定着一些商品和服务将限定数量的提供给消费者。美国价格系统是一个综合复杂的网络系统，它包括经济上所有产品的买人卖出价格，同样也包括了很多服务，包括劳动力，专业人员，运输的，公共事业等的服务，所有的这些价格相互关系形成的价格“系统”。任何特殊的产品和服务的价格都与这个系统相关，而且多多少少要依赖这个复杂系统中其它成分。

　　If one were to ask a group of randomly selected individuals to define "price", many would reply that price is an amount of money paid by the buyer to the seller of a product or service or, in other words that price is the money values of a product or service as agreed upon in a market transaction. This definition is, of course, valid as far as it goes. For a complete understanding of a price in any particular transaction, much more than the amount of money involved must be known. Both the buyer and the seller should be familiar with not only the money amount, but with the amount and quality of the product or service to be exchanged, the time and place at which the exchange will take place and payment will be made, the form of money to be used, the credit terms and discounts that apply to the transaction, guarantees on the product or service, delivery terms, return privileges, and other factors. In other words, both buyer and seller should be fully aware of all the factors that comprise the total "package" being exchanged for the asked-for amount of money in order that they may evaluate a given price.

如果随便挑选一群人来问他们如何定义"价格"，很多人会回答价格就是买方从卖方那里买产品或服务所付出的钱数。换句话说，价格就是市场交易中大家赞同的产品或服务的价钱。当然，这个定义在某个方面是有效的。为了完整认识价格在任何交易中的定义，需要知道到更多和货币无关因素。买卖方都不但要清楚交易中的钱数，而且要非常熟悉产品或者服务的质量和数量，交易的时间、地点，采用哪种形式付款，有怎样的付款期限和折扣，对产品和服务的质量保证、交货条款、退赔权利等等。换句话说，为了能估算价格，买卖方都必须了解构成交易物价格的细节。