【Indicator-07.20期】官方文字稿-雙語(yǔ)

【機(jī)翻，僅供參考】

官方鏈接：https://www.npr.org/transcripts/1189056817

Topic：A first-class postal economics primer

SYLVIE DOUGLIS, BYLINE: NPR.?西爾維·道格利斯連線(xiàn)：NPR。

(SOUNDBITE OF DROP ELECTRIC SONG, "WAKING UP TO THE FIRE")

（Drop 電歌原聲片段“Wakeing Up to the Fire”）

ADRIAN MA, HOST:??馬德良，主持人：

Darian, do you have any postage stamps in your house?

達(dá)里安，你家里有郵票嗎？

DARIAN WOODS, HOST:??達(dá)里安·伍茲，主持人：

I have some in my wallet right now.

我現(xiàn)在錢(qián)包里有一些。

MA: Oh, yeah? What kind??馬：哦，是嗎？哪一種？

WOODS: Just getting some out - this one is a summer fun edition, so somebody's playing baseball.

伍茲：只是拿出一些 - 這是夏季趣味版，所以有人在打棒球。

MA: Which is very (laughter) - any kind of sports feels like an un-Darian choice.

MA：這非常（笑聲）——任何類(lèi)型的運(yùn)動(dòng)都感覺(jué)像是非達(dá)里安式的選擇。

WOODS: I have watched one baseball game in my life, and I have the stamp to prove it.

伍茲：我一生中看過(guò)一場(chǎng)棒球比賽，我有印記來(lái)證明這一點(diǎn)。

MA: When did you get those stamps, if I may ask?

MA：請(qǐng)問(wèn)你什么時(shí)候得到這些郵票的？

WOODS: About a year ago.?伍茲：大約一年前。

MA: OK. Well, you have in your hands, my friend, a rapidly appreciating asset.

馬：好的。好吧，我的朋友，你手中擁有的是一項(xiàng)快速升值的資產(chǎn)。

WOODS: Oh, really??伍茲：哦，真的嗎？

MA: Congratulations. Yeah. Forever stamps - they started this year at 60 cents a pop. It was then raised to 63 cents. And then just over a week ago, the price was raised once again to 66 cents. That is a 10% gain in just half a year.

馬：恭喜。是的。永久郵票 - 今年開(kāi)始發(fā)行，每張 60 美分。然后它被提高到63美分。然后就在一周多前，價(jià)格再次上漲至 66 美分。也就是說(shuō)，短短半年時(shí)間就上漲了10%。

WOODS: All right. That's better than the actual money in my wallet...

伍茲：好吧。這比我錢(qián)包里的錢(qián)還要好……

MA: (Laughter).

WOODS: ...Which has lost value to inflation.

伍茲：……這已經(jīng)因通貨膨脹而失去了價(jià)值。

MA: It's pretty good, right??MA：非常好，對(duì)吧？

WOODS: I mean, it's pretty good for those who have stamps. But, you know, when I next need to buy stamps, that's unfortunate.

伍茲：我的意思是，這對(duì)于那些有郵票的人來(lái)說(shuō)非常好。但是，你知道，當(dāng)我下次需要購(gòu)買(mǎi)郵票時(shí)，那就很不幸了。

MA: Womp-womp. But seriously, though, Darian, when you take into account inflation, it actually costs less to send a letter today than it did 100 years ago.

MA：?jiǎn)鑶鑶?。但說(shuō)實(shí)話(huà)，達(dá)里安，當(dāng)你考慮到通貨膨脹時(shí)，今天寄信的成本實(shí)際上比 100 年前要低。

WOODS: So no complaining then.?伍茲：所以沒(méi)有抱怨。

MA: And this is at least partly why the Postal Service has basically not turned a profit in the last decade and a half. This is THE INDICATOR FROM PLANET MONEY. I'm Adrian Ma.

MA：這至少是郵政服務(wù)在過(guò)去十五年里基本上沒(méi)有盈利的部分原因。這是地球貨幣的指標(biāo)。我是阿德里安·馬。

WOODS: And I'm Darian Woods. There is a fascinating history behind the Postal Service's current economic woes. And so today on the show, we're going to get into it. And our guest explains how the U.S. mail went from being a public service to being a struggling quasi-business.

伍茲：我是達(dá)里安·伍茲。郵政服務(wù)當(dāng)前的經(jīng)濟(jì)困境背后有一段令人著迷的歷史。所以今天在節(jié)目中，我們將深入探討它。我們的嘉賓解釋了美國(guó)郵政如何從一項(xiàng)公共服務(wù)轉(zhuǎn)變?yōu)橐豁?xiàng)苦苦掙扎的準(zhǔn)企業(yè)。

(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)?（音樂(lè)原聲片段）

WOODS: To get the back story on the Postal Service, we reached out to Richard John. He's a preeminent postal nerd. He's the author of a book on the history of the postal system.

伍茲：為了了解郵政服務(wù)的背景故事，我們聯(lián)系了理查德·約翰。他是一位杰出的郵政書(shū)呆子。他是一本關(guān)于郵政系統(tǒng)歷史的書(shū)的作者。

MA: And there might be parts where I might interrupt.

MA：有些部分我可能會(huì)打斷。

RICHARD JOHN: That's fine. I teach at a journalism school, so I've seen how this goes (laughter).

理查德·約翰： 沒(méi)關(guān)系。我在一所新聞學(xué)院任教，所以我親眼目睹了事情的進(jìn)展（笑聲）。

MA: OK.

Yeah. And, Darian, we should mention that Richard is also a professor of history at Columbia University, where I actually took a history of journalism class with him. And I'm a little embarrassed to say that I did not immediately recall this fact when we first started talking.

是的。而且，達(dá)里安，我們應(yīng)該提到理查德也是哥倫比亞大學(xué)的歷史學(xué)教授，我實(shí)際上在那里和他一起上了新聞史課。我有點(diǎn)不好意思地說(shuō)，當(dāng)我們第一次開(kāi)始交談時(shí)，我并沒(méi)有立即回憶起這一事實(shí)。

JOHN: Yeah. I'm the guy who's giving that lecture, and you're falling asleep, and you don't remember anything - 2016, that's me.

約翰：是的。我是那個(gè)演講的人，你睡著了，你什么都不記得了——2016 年，那就是我。

MA: (Laughter) There was...?MA：（笑聲）有……

I was not the best student, apparently.

顯然我不是最好的學(xué)生。

WOODS: Richard says that the story of the U.S. Postal Service begins in 1792. The country is brand new, and the U.S. Constitution's ink is barely dry.

伍茲：理查德說(shuō)，美國(guó)郵政服務(wù)的故事始于 1792 年。這個(gè)國(guó)家是全新的，美國(guó)憲法的墨跡才剛剛干。

MA: And it has this line in it giving Congress the power to set up a postal system. And from the very start, Richard says they made a pretty interesting economic choice.

MA：其中有這樣一句話(huà)，賦予國(guó)會(huì)建立郵政系統(tǒng)的權(quán)力。理查德說(shuō)，從一開(kāi)始他們就做出了一個(gè)非常有趣的經(jīng)濟(jì)選擇。

JOHN: Newspapers and other printed items carrying information of public import were charged at much lower rates than letters. So letters, in effect, subsidized everybody's newspapers.

約翰：報(bào)紙和其他帶有公共重要信息的印刷品的收費(fèi)比信件低得多。因此，信件實(shí)際上資助了每個(gè)人的報(bào)紙。

MA: So from its inception, the U.S. postal system had this high-minded purpose to stitch together the young republic through information and communication. But, you know, launching a high-minded, continental information network in a rapidly expanding country turned out to be super freaking expensive.

MA：因此，從一開(kāi)始，美國(guó)郵政系統(tǒng)就有一個(gè)崇高的目標(biāo)，即通過(guò)信息和通信將這個(gè)年輕的共和國(guó)縫合在一起。但是，你知道，在一個(gè)快速擴(kuò)張的國(guó)家啟動(dòng)一個(gè)高尚的大陸信息網(wǎng)絡(luò)結(jié)果是極其昂貴的。

WOODS: So to help out with that, Congress in the 1800s grants the Post Office Department a monopoly over letters. Letter mail was the bulk of its revenue. And while some lawmakers opposed the idea of a monopoly, Richard says they came around in the end.

伍茲：為了解決這個(gè)問(wèn)題，國(guó)會(huì)在 1800 年代授予郵局部門(mén)對(duì)信件的壟斷權(quán)。信件郵件是其收入的主要部分。雖然一些立法者反對(duì)壟斷的想法，但理查德說(shuō)他們最終改變了立場(chǎng)。

JOHN: The compromise in 1845 was that postal rates for letters were dropped significantly. It's kind of a carrot and stick. We'll make it much cheaper to send letters, but we will enforce the monopoly.

約翰：1845 年的妥協(xié)是信件的郵寄費(fèi)率大幅下降。這有點(diǎn)像胡蘿卜加大棒。我們將使寄信變得更加便宜，但我們將加強(qiáng)壟斷。

WOODS: Even with this monopoly power, though, the Post Office Department still struggled to break even. Congress often had to appropriate taxpayer dollars to help keep it running.

伍茲：盡管如此，郵局部門(mén)仍然難以實(shí)現(xiàn)收支平衡。國(guó)會(huì)經(jīng)常不得不撥款納稅人的錢(qián)來(lái)幫助維持其運(yùn)轉(zhuǎn)。

MA: So if I'm understanding everything you're saying so far, for most of the Postal Service's life, it was understood as an operation that would probably lose money most years, but that's OK because it serves a very vital public function.

MA：所以，如果我理解你到目前為止所說(shuō)的一切，在郵政服務(wù)的大部分時(shí)間里，它被理解為一項(xiàng)可能在大多數(shù)年份都虧損的業(yè)務(wù)，但這沒(méi)關(guān)系，因?yàn)樗?wù)于非常重要的公共職能。

JOHN: I mean, do public schools lose money? It just wasn't an issue. It was vital to the project of democracy, civilization, socialization, commerce.

約翰：我的意思是，公立學(xué)校會(huì)賠錢(qián)嗎？這根本不是問(wèn)題。它對(duì)于民主、文明、社會(huì)化、商業(yè)的工程至關(guān)重要。

MA: But this attitude began to change around the 1960s. At the time, there was growing concern over patronage, which is basically local congressmen doling out post office jobs to their friends. There was also labor unrest, which culminated in a 1970 postal worker strike, and this series of events helped spark in some politicians a growing antipathy towards this nearly two-century-old bureaucracy. They thought, why can't the postal system operate more like a business?

MA：但這種態(tài)度在 20 世紀(jì) 60 年代左右開(kāi)始發(fā)生變化。當(dāng)時(shí)，人們?cè)絹?lái)越擔(dān)心贊助，這基本上是當(dāng)?shù)貒?guó)會(huì)議員向他們的朋友提供郵局工作。此外還發(fā)生了勞工騷亂，最終導(dǎo)致 1970 年的郵政工人罷工，這一系列事件引發(fā)了一些政客對(duì)這個(gè)近兩個(gè)世紀(jì)歷史的官僚機(jī)構(gòu)日益增長(zhǎng)的反感。他們想，為什么郵政系統(tǒng)不能更像企業(yè)一樣運(yùn)作呢？

JOHN: If you asked that question in the 1880s, you asked it in the 1930s, lawmakers responded, no, it shouldn't be a business. It's more important than a business. The question - should the post office be more like a business? - is a modern question.

約翰：如果你在 1880 年代問(wèn)這個(gè)問(wèn)題，那么你在 1930 年代也問(wèn)過(guò)這個(gè)問(wèn)題，立法者的回答是，不，這不應(yīng)該是一個(gè)企業(yè)。它比生意更重要。問(wèn)題是——郵局應(yīng)該更像一個(gè)企業(yè)嗎？ ——這是一個(gè)現(xiàn)代問(wèn)題。

WOODS: In 1970, a lot of lawmakers decided the answer should be yes - should be more like a business. They passed the Postal Reorganization Act. With it, the Post Office Department became the Postal Service, and it had a new mandate to operate more like a self-sustaining business.

伍茲：1970 年，許多立法者認(rèn)為答案應(yīng)該是肯定的——應(yīng)該更像是一家企業(yè)。他們通過(guò)了《郵政重組法》。有了它，郵局部門(mén)成為了郵政服務(wù)，并且它有了新的使命，更像是一個(gè)自給自足的企業(yè)來(lái)運(yùn)作。

MA: Yeah. It can no longer depend on Congress to, you know, grease the wheels of the system with federal dollars. It would basically have to survive by selling stamps and other services. But this has become increasingly difficult over time. So, for instance, over the past couple decades, as more people started communicating and paying bills and getting news online, the volume of mail delivered by USPS has plummeted about 40%. That obviously took a huge chunk out of its revenue, and so did a 2006 law that Congress passed. This law required the Postal Service to pre-fund retirement health benefits for its employees, which was meant to be a sort of fiscal restraint on the agency and ended up costing billions of dollars a year.

馬：是的。你知道，它不能再依賴(lài)國(guó)會(huì)用聯(lián)邦資金來(lái)潤(rùn)滑這個(gè)系統(tǒng)的車(chē)輪。它基本上必須靠出售郵票和其他服務(wù)來(lái)生存。但隨著時(shí)間的推移，這變得越來(lái)越困難。例如，在過(guò)去的幾十年里，隨著越來(lái)越多的人開(kāi)始在網(wǎng)上交流、支付賬單和獲取新聞，USPS 投遞的郵件量驟降了約 40%。這顯然剝奪了其收入的很大一部分，國(guó)會(huì)通過(guò)的 2006 年法律也是如此。該法律要求郵政服務(wù)為其員工預(yù)先提供退休健康福利資金，這本來(lái)是對(duì)該機(jī)構(gòu)的一種財(cái)政限制，但最終每年花費(fèi)數(shù)十億美元。

WOODS: Now, the Postal Service has been trying to adapt. In recent years, a big part of its revenue stream comes from people buying stuff online.

伍茲：現(xiàn)在，郵政服務(wù)一直在努力適應(yīng)。近年來(lái)，其收入來(lái)源的很大一部分來(lái)自人們?cè)诰€(xiàn)購(gòu)物。

JOHN: Federal Express, UPS are very big customers - post office because the post office has access to what's called the last mile.

約翰：聯(lián)邦快遞、UPS 是郵局的大客戶(hù)，因?yàn)猷]局可以到達(dá)所謂的最后一英里。

WOODS: The last mile being what logistics people call the trip between, say, a local Amazon warehouse and your front door. Now, it's worth mentioning, though, retailers like Amazon and Walmart are increasingly doing that last mile themselves. All of this, the legal constraints, the changing technology and competition is why the Government Accountability Office says that the Postal Service is not financially sustainable. And that's also why you have some conservatives calling for the Postal Service to be privatized.

伍茲：最后一英里就是物流人員所說(shuō)的從當(dāng)?shù)貋嗰R遜倉(cāng)庫(kù)到你家前門(mén)之間的行程。但現(xiàn)在值得一提的是，亞馬遜和沃爾瑪?shù)攘闶凵淘絹?lái)越多地自己做最后一英里的工作。所有這些、法律限制、不斷變化的技術(shù)和競(jìng)爭(zhēng)都是政府問(wèn)責(zé)辦公室表示郵政服務(wù)在財(cái)務(wù)上不可持續(xù)的原因。這也是為什么一些保守派呼吁郵政服務(wù)私有化。

MA: Now, Richard says he understands the criticism. A lot of us have had the experience of waiting in long lines at the post office. And, you know, a lot of people have come to associate the U.S. mail with, like, getting junk mail every day. And it's true. According to the numbers, a little over half of the U.S. mail is marketing, you know, like flyers and catalogs, and that's a big source of the Postal Service's revenue. Be that as it may, Richard says, for a lot of people in small businesses, the U.S. mail is really the only option.

MA：現(xiàn)在，理查德說(shuō)他理解這些批評(píng)。我們很多人都有過(guò)在郵局排長(zhǎng)隊(duì)等候的經(jīng)歷。而且，你知道，很多人已經(jīng)將美國(guó)郵件與每天收到垃圾郵件聯(lián)系在一起。這是真的。根據(jù)數(shù)據(jù)，美國(guó)郵件的一半以上用于營(yíng)銷(xiāo)，比如傳單和目錄，這是郵政服務(wù)收入的一大來(lái)源。理查德說(shuō)，盡管如此，對(duì)于許多小企業(yè)的人來(lái)說(shuō)，美國(guó)郵件確實(shí)是唯一的選擇。

JOHN: If you look at the real world, then you discover that there is a rationale for this remarkable institution. When you get into the hinterland, post office is disproportionately important. Not everyone lives in New York or Washington, D.C. Some people live in Wyoming or Missouri or Alaska.

約翰：如果你看看現(xiàn)實(shí)世界，你就會(huì)發(fā)現(xiàn)這個(gè)非凡的機(jī)構(gòu)是有其合理性的。當(dāng)您進(jìn)入內(nèi)陸地區(qū)時(shí)，郵局就顯得格外重要。并非每個(gè)人都住在紐約或華盛頓特區(qū)。有些人住在懷俄明州、密蘇里州或阿拉斯加。

MA: And there aren't, like, Fedexes sprouting up in rural Alaska.

MA：阿拉斯加農(nóng)村地區(qū)還沒(méi)有出現(xiàn)聯(lián)邦快遞等服務(wù)。

JOHN: If you only had Fedex, can you imagine how much it would cost? It's a business. Post office isn't.

約翰：如果你只有聯(lián)邦快遞，你能想象要花多少錢(qián)嗎？這是一門(mén)生意。郵局不是。

MA: So how does the Postal Service become more financially sustainable? Well, Congress recently eliminated the requirement for pre-funding health care retirement benefits. So that will help its bottom line.

MA：那么郵政服務(wù)如何在財(cái)務(wù)上變得更加可持續(xù)呢？國(guó)會(huì)最近取消了預(yù)先資助醫(yī)療退休福利的要求。這將有助于其盈利。

WOODS: On paper, sure. One could also argue it's kicking the can down the road.

伍茲：當(dāng)然，在紙面上。人們也可能會(huì)說(shuō)這是在拖延時(shí)間。

MA: That's true. But the agency is also investing in new equipment. You know, think mail processing machines and electric vehicles, stuff that is supposed to save it money in the long run. And then you have the postmaster general, Louis DeJoy, who says maybe the post office could do other things, like, for instance, make them, like, mini fulfillment centers so they can offer same-day delivery just like Amazon. Now, Richard, for his part, he kind of likes the idea of adding banking services back to local post offices, which used to be a thing for a lot of the 20th century.

馬：確實(shí)如此。但該機(jī)構(gòu)也在投資新設(shè)備。你知道，想想郵件處理機(jī)和電動(dòng)汽車(chē)，從長(zhǎng)遠(yuǎn)來(lái)看，這些東西應(yīng)該可以省錢(qián)。然后是郵政局長(zhǎng)路易斯·德喬伊（Louis DeJoy），他說(shuō)也許郵局可以做其他事情，比如建立迷你配送中心，這樣他們就可以像亞馬遜一樣提供當(dāng)日送達(dá)服務(wù)?，F(xiàn)在，就理查德而言，他有點(diǎn)喜歡將銀行服務(wù)重新添加到當(dāng)?shù)剜]局的想法，這曾經(jīng)是 20 世紀(jì)大部分時(shí)間的事情。

WOODS: And regardless of what happens, it's clear that Americans love the Postal Service. In a recent Pew survey, 77% of Americans had a favorable view of it. You know, among federal agencies, that's second only to the National Park Service.

伍茲：無(wú)論發(fā)生什么，很明顯美國(guó)人喜歡郵政服務(wù)。皮尤研究中心最近的一項(xiàng)調(diào)查顯示，77% 的美國(guó)人對(duì)此持積極態(tài)度。你知道，在聯(lián)邦機(jī)構(gòu)中，它僅次于國(guó)家公園管理局。