2015考研英语阅读英文原刊《经济学人》：荒唐的条例

　　2015考研英语复习正是强化复习阶段，考研英语阅读在考研英语中占了40分，所以考研英语阅读是英语科目中重要的一项。新东方名师范猛老师曾建议过考研生需要坚持每天泛读10-15分钟的英文原刊。强烈推荐了杂志《经济学人》杂志中的文章也是考研英语的主要材料来源.希望考研考生认真阅读，快速提高考研英语阅读水平。

　　Schumpeter

　　Rules for fools

　　荒唐的条例

　　The terrible threat of unlicensed interior designers

　　对无牌室内设计师的可怕威胁

　　May 12th 2011 | from the print edition

　　IN 1941 Franklin Roosevelt added two new items to America’s ancestral freedoms of speech and worship: freedom from fear and freedom from want. Today’s politicians offer a far more generous menu: freedom from unlicensed hair-cutters, freedom from cowboy flower-arrangers and, most important of all, freedom from rogue interior designers. What is the point of enjoying freedom from fear or want, after all, if you cannot enjoy freedom from poorly co-ordinated colour schemes?

　　1941年富兰克林.罗斯福给美国先前的言论自由和信仰自由条例再加了两个项目：免于恐惧的自由和免于匮乏的自由。今天的政治家却提供了一张更体面的菜单：免于无牌理发师的自由，免于无牌插花师的自由，更重要的是，免于无牌室内设计师的自由。如果不能避免不协调的配色方案，那么享受免于恐惧与匮乏的意义又何在呢?

　　In the 1950s, when organisation man ruled, fewer than 5% of American workers needed licences. Today, after three decades of deregulation, the figure is almost 30%. Add to that people who are preparing to obtain a licence or whose jobs involve some form of certification and the share is 38%. Other rich countries impose far fewer fetters than the land of the free. In Britain only 13% of workers need licences (though that has doubled in 12 years).

　　在19世纪50年代，当组织人统治时，只有不到5%的美国劳动者需要许可证。今天，经过30年的放宽管制，这个数字大约是30%，加上一些准备获取许可证的人和一些本身工作就具备某种形式的许可证的人，该比例能达到38%。比起该国的自由条例来，一些富裕国家给他们的国家强加的束缚要少很多。在英国，需要许可证的劳动者所占的比例只有13%(虽然该比例在12年之后已经翻了一番)。

　　Some occupations clearly need to be licensed. Nobody wants to unleash amateur doctors and dentists on the public, or untrained tattoo artists for that matter. But, as the Wall Street Journal has doggedly pointed out, America’s Licence Raj has extended its tentacles into occupations that pose no plausible threat to health or safety—occupations, moreover, that are governed by considerations of taste rather than anything that can be objectively measured by licensing authorities. The list of jobs that require licences in some states already sounds like something from Monty Python—florists, handymen, wrestlers, tour guides, frozen-dessert sellers, firework operatives, second-hand booksellers and, of course, interior designers—but it will become sillier still if ambitious cat-groomers and dog-walkers get their way.

　　毫无疑问一些职业是需要许可证。没有人会想要看到业余的医生和业余的牙医在公共场所出现，或者让没有受过培训的纹身艺术家来做纹身。但是，正如《华尔街日报》明确地指出的是，美国的牌照制度已经把它的管制范围扩大到一些对健康和安全没有明显威胁的职业——与其它方面相比，这些职业主要是和审美有关系并且可以被许可证颁发当局客观地衡量。在美国一些州所列出的需要许可证的工作听起来像是来自巨蟒剧团——花艺师，杂务工，摔跤运动员，导游，冷冻点心销售者，焰火师，二手书销售者，当然也包括室内设计师——但是如果动物美容师和受雇遛狗者也需要许可证的话，这将会变得更荒唐。

　　Getting a licence can be time-consuming. Want to become a barber in California? That will require studying the art of cutting and blow-drying for almost a year. Want to work in the wig trade in Texas? You will need to take 300 hours of classes and pass both written and practical exams. Alabama obliges manicurists to sit through 750 hours of instruction before taking a practical exam. Florida will not let you work as an interior designer unless you complete a four-year university degree and a two-year apprenticeship and pass a two-day examination.

　　取得一个许可证需要花费很多时间。如果你想要成为加利福尼亚的理发师，你需要为学习剪头发和吹头发的手艺花费几乎一年的时间。如果你想在德克萨斯州从事假发买卖，你就需要学习300小时的课程和通过所谓的笔试和实践考试。阿拉巴马州强制要求指甲修饰师在做实践考试之前必须经历750小时的教导。在佛罗里达州，如果你没有完成一个四年的大学学历和两年的学徒训练并且通过一个两天的考试，是不能从事室内设计师工作的。

　　America’s Licence Raj crushes would-be entrepreneurs. Consider three people who come from very different states and occupations. Jestina Clayton is an African hair-braider with 23 years of experience. But the Utah Barber, Cosmetologist/Barber, Esthetician, Electrologist and Nail Technician Licensing Board told her that she cannot practise her craft unless she first obtains a licence—which means spending up to $18,000 on 2,000 hours of study, none of it devoted to African hair-braid

　　美国的牌照制度打击了想要创业的人。以三个不同职业和来自不同国家的人为例. Jestina Clayton是一名理发师并且有23年的从业经验. 但是犹他州理发师,美容师, 电蚀医师和专业美甲师认证机构都告诉她说除非她首先获取一个许可证,不然她不能实践她的手艺——这意味着她需要花费18，000美元去学习2，000小时的课程，这些课程中没有任何内容是与非洲头发编制有关系的。

　　Justin Brown is an abbot at a Benedictine abbey that supplements its meagre income by making and selling simple wooden coffins. But the Louisiana Board of Embalmers and Funeral Directors has ordered him to “cease and desist”. Heaven knows what harm a corpse might suffer from an unlicensed coffin. Barbara Vanderkolk Gardner runs a flourishing interior-design business in New Jersey. But when she tried to expand into Florida, the state’s Board of Architecture and Interior Design ordered her to delete all references to “interior design” from her website and stop offering “interior design services” in the Sunshine State.

　　Justin Brown是本笃会修道院的一名修士,他依靠制造和买简单的木棺材来补贴他那微薄的收入.但是路易斯安那州董事会的尸体防腐和丧礼董事命令他“停止”这种做法。或许只有上帝才知道一个没有许可证的棺材能给一具尸体带来什么害处。Barbara Vanderkolk Gardner在新泽西州经营着一项兴旺的室内设计业务，但当她想把生意扩大到佛罗里达州的时候，该州的建筑与室内设计董事会命令她删除她网页上关于“室内设计”的内容并且停止在该阳光之州提供“室内设计服务”。

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