Narrator: Listen to part of a lecture in a United States Government class.

旁白：接下来请听一段有关于美国政府的讲座。

Professor: We've been talking about the basic services and facilities that an economy needs to function, roads, bridges, rail systems, water supplies, power grids, and so forth.

教授：我们已经讲过经济运作必须的基础服务和设施，比如道路，桥梁，地铁系统，供水系统，供电网等等。

What we call infrastructure.

这些就是我们讲的基础设施。

Now, traditionally much of a society's infrastructure, particularly the transportation infrastructure, has been owned and operated by states, by governments.

现在传统上的社会基础设施，尤其是交通系统已经被国家，政府所拥有和运作。

But lately, local and state governments have started to consider and sometimes actually enter into various deals to privatize parts of their infrastructure, particularly in the transportation sector.

但最近，地方和州政府已经开始考虑，有时甚至实际上签订了各种协议，将其部分基础设施私有化，特别是在交通运输领域。

And why is this privatization happening?

为什么会出现私有化？

Well, as you may know, in the 1950s and 60s there was a tremendous highway building boom.

额，你可能知道1950s，60s爆发了建高速公路的热潮。

Governments created a huge interlocking network of highways with associated bridges and tunnels.

政府建造了一个巨型的高速公路与桥梁隧道的联结网。

But these facilities are getting old now and they're becoming more and more expensive to maintain, very expensive actually.

但是这些设施越来越陈旧，维护的成本越来越高，真的是相当高。

Tolls and tax revenues don't often cover all the needed repairs.

公路收费和税收有时候不够支付维修费。

Student: So why don't the governments just raise tolls and taxes?

学生：那为什么政府不提高税收和过路费？

Professor: Well, that's not so simple.

教授：没那么简单。

Government officials are elected by voters and voters get upset when their taxes go up.

政府官员是被纳税人选举出来的，政府提高税收，纳税人自然不乐意。

And as for highways tolls, commuters especially don't like paying higher tolls, merely proposing increases can damage political careers.

至于高速公路通行费，通勤者尤其不喜欢支付更高的通行费，仅仅提出增加通行费都可能会损害政府官员的政治生涯。

So there's tremendous pressure on governments to find other ways to maintain infrastructure assets.

所以政府背负着巨大的压力去找到另一条方案去维护基础设施。

One solution is to sell or lease a part of the infrastructure, a toll bridge, a tunnel, something like that to a private company, usually a company that specializes in this sort a thing.

一种方法是去卖或者租一部分设施给私人公司，比如像收费桥梁，隧道等。

The idea is that the company that buys or leases a bridge or a highway or whatever will find it easier to keep it in good repair.

这个方法是想让那些买了或者租了桥或者高速公路的公司能容易的维护设施。

Student: That would make commuters happy.

学生：那通勤者就高兴了。

Professor: Right, there could be better service.

教授：对的，服务也会更好。

Since they are not government entities, private companies face less political resistance, say to raising tolls in order to provide that better service.

因为私人公司不是政府实体，面临的政治阻力更小，比如说可以提高过路费来提供更好的服务。

But besides that, there's another reason governments like these deals.

除了这个，政府喜欢私有化的原因还有一个。

States often have trouble paying their bills and they can use money they get from selling or leasing a piece of infrastructure to balance their budgets.

政府经常没钱付账单，他们可以用卖或者租一部分设施的钱去平衡预算。

Student: That all sounds good to me.

学生：听上去不错。

Professor: It does sound good, but a lot of people are very wary of privatizing pieces of infrastructure and rightly so.

教授：听上去是不错，但是很多人对于私有化基础设施还是持谨慎态度的，也确实是这样。

For instance, in almost every case thus far, the first thing private companies do is drastically raise user fees because they say, "Oh, we must do critical maintenance that's gone undone for years and years".

比如，到现在为止大部分的情况都是，私人公司做的第一件事情就是大幅度提高过路费，因为他们说：“哦，我们必须要进行重点维修，要修好多好多年。

And because we're a private company, we can't use tax money to do it.

因为我们是私人公司，我们不能用税收去修。

Our only option is raising tolls.

我们唯一的选择就是提高过路费。

But what's the impact on people who use a toll road to get to work?

但这对于走高速公路去上班的人会产生什么影响？

What if a private owner doubles or triples the toll overnight?

如果私人公司一夜之间抬高两倍或者三倍的过路费该怎么办？

Student: Uh, users would have to spend a higher percentage of their income on commuting.

学生：额，通行者会花费他们收入的高比例在上下班上。

Professor: And depending on their income, that percentage could be significant.

教授：基于他们的收入，这个比例将是非常高的。

Student: But if tolls went up, me, I'd just avoid the toll road and take smaller back roads where there aren't any tolls.

学生：但如果过路费上涨了，我可以避免走收费公路，去走不收费的小路。

Professor: That's a good point.

教授：很好的主意。

Secondary roads would become attractive to lots of other people too, and private companies know this.

支线公路变得更吸引人，并且私人公司是知道的。

They also know that dramatic reductions in traffic would hurt their bottom line.

他们也知道交通量急剧缩减会触碰到他们的底线。

So market forces do play a role in keeping private companies from raising their tolls too much.

所以市场因素确实起到作用不让私人公司提高太多过路费。

But the mere prospect of astronomical toll hikes is still alarming to governments when they think about selling or leasing parts of an infrastructure.

但是仅仅是过路费会急剧攀升的前景仍然对政府是个警示，当政府考虑专卖或者出租部分基础设施的时候。

Now, from a business standpoint, infrastructure purchases can be great investments!

从商业的出发点来看，购买基础设施是个非常好的投资！

If a company buys or gets a long-term lease on a toll bridge from the government, it's got an almost guaranteed steady source of revenue for years and years, which means that if the company decides it wants to sell the bridge to another company, say ten years from now, it'll have no problem finding a buyer.

如果一个公司从政府那买或者长期租一个收费桥梁，那差不多保障了公司每年都有了一个固定的收入来源，也就意味着说如果公司决定把桥梁卖给另一个公司，比如从现在数十年，是绝对不愁买家的。

Student: But what if that buyer, this new owner, continues to charge a high toll but doesn't do the same amount of maintenance because they want to squeeze more money out of the asset?

学生：但是如果这个新的买家，持续收高过路费，但是不做同等量的维修，因为他们想要从这个固定资产里压榨更多的钱，那怎么办？

Professor: In that case, could the governments buy the asset back?

教授：这种情况下，政府能把它买回来吗？

Well, to do that, it would have to raise money either by raising taxes or by selling bonds, both of which are politically sensitive.

要这么做的话，政府必须筹集资金要么通过增加税收要么通过卖债券，而这两者都是政治敏感的。

So it's unclear in a practical sense whether these deals are truly reversible.

所以在现实里转卖设施可否真的可以撤回是不清楚的。