WEEKLY ADDRESS: Ensuring Our Free Market Works for Everyone (April 16, 2016)

奧巴馬每周電視講話(huà)：總統(tǒng)希望所有人都受益于自由市場(chǎng)

Hello, everybody. One of America's greatest strengths is our free market. A thriving private sector is the lifeblood of our economy-it's how we create jobs, expand opportunities, and give everybody a shot at success. It's what has made America the strongest country on Earth.

大家好！美國(guó)強(qiáng)大的力量之源就是自由市場(chǎng)。繁榮的私營(yíng)企業(yè)是我們經(jīng)濟(jì)發(fā)展的命脈，這樣的基礎(chǔ)讓我們創(chuàng)造就業(yè)、增加機(jī)遇，讓每個(gè)人都有機(jī)會(huì)獲得成功。這也讓美國(guó)成為地球上最強(qiáng)大的國(guó)家。

The most essential ingredient in a healthy free market is competition. But right now, too many companies are engaging in behaviors that stifle competition-like blocking new competitors from entering the market or limiting the information and options that give consumers real choice. As a consequence, the rest of us pay higher prices for lower quality products and services. Workers receive lower wages than they otherwise would. Small businesses and entrepreneurs can get squeezed out of the market. And none of that is fair-or good for our economy.

一個(gè)健康、自由市場(chǎng)環(huán)境中最重要的元素就是競(jìng)爭(zhēng)。但是現(xiàn)在，太多的公司存在各種扼殺競(jìng)爭(zhēng)的行為，比如說(shuō)阻止新的競(jìng)爭(zhēng)者進(jìn)入市場(chǎng)，或阻礙信息交流不給用戶(hù)提供真正需要的選項(xiàng)。隨之而來(lái)的就是，我們付著高價(jià)錢(qián)，卻享受著低水準(zhǔn)的產(chǎn)品和服務(wù)。勞動(dòng)者的工資也比他們應(yīng)得的少。中小企業(yè)和企業(yè)主們被擠出市場(chǎng)。這些都是不公平的，對(duì)我們的經(jīng)濟(jì)發(fā)展也沒(méi)有好處。

The deck should not be stacked in favor of the wealthiest individuals and the biggest corporations, against working Americans. That's why my administration is doing everything we can to reverse this trend and promote more competition in the marketplace. In addition to enforcing the rules on the books, I've directed federal agencies to identify anti-competitive behavior in different industries, and find new and specific ways to promote competition.

發(fā)展的平臺(tái)不能被把持在少數(shù)最富有的人以及少數(shù)大公司手中，不能損害工薪階層的利益。因此，本屆政府正在盡一切努力，扭轉(zhuǎn)這一趨勢(shì)，促進(jìn)市場(chǎng)競(jìng)爭(zhēng)。為鞏固競(jìng)爭(zhēng)環(huán)境，我們要依照法律規(guī)范，加強(qiáng)執(zhí)法，我已經(jīng)指示聯(lián)邦相關(guān)機(jī)構(gòu)，甄別各行各業(yè)存在的反競(jìng)爭(zhēng)行為，探索新的可行方式，促進(jìn)競(jìng)爭(zhēng)。

One industry that's ripe for change is cable TV. Right now, 99 percent of cable and satellite TV customers rent set-top boxes from their providers. According to one survey, this costs households an average of more than $230 per year. We spend some $20 billion to rent these devices. While we have almost unlimited choice in what we watch on television, from traditional programming to online content, there's next to no competition to build a better, user-friendly product that allows you to easily access all this content in one place. So most consumers just rent whatever the cable company offers. Because we have to. That means companies have little incentive to innovate. As a consequence, we need multiple devices and controllers to access content from different sources. That makes no sense.

其中應(yīng)該盡快變革的就是有線(xiàn)電視行業(yè)。當(dāng)前，99%的有線(xiàn)衛(wèi)星電視用戶(hù)是從運(yùn)營(yíng)商租用機(jī)頂盒。根據(jù)一項(xiàng)調(diào)查顯示，每戶(hù)家庭每年的平均租用成本超過(guò)230美元。我們每年要花200億來(lái)租用這些設(shè)備。由于我們通過(guò)電視看什么應(yīng)該是完全不受限制的，從傳統(tǒng)電視節(jié)目到在線(xiàn)，但是這個(gè)領(lǐng)域幾乎沒(méi)有競(jìng)爭(zhēng)來(lái)促生更好的、與用戶(hù)更友好的產(chǎn)品，讓我們可以方便的通過(guò)一個(gè)設(shè)備看到所有想看的內(nèi)容。因此，有線(xiàn)電視運(yùn)營(yíng)商那里提供什么設(shè)備，大部分的用戶(hù)也就租用什么設(shè)備。因?yàn)槲覀儾坏貌贿@么做。也就是說(shuō)，這些公司之間幾乎沒(méi)有任何創(chuàng)新的驅(qū)動(dòng)力。隨之而來(lái)的就是，我們需要各種各樣的設(shè)備和遙控器，來(lái)接入各種來(lái)源的內(nèi)容。這太不合理了。

So my administration has encouraged the FCC to remove the barriers to competition that prevent new players from offering innovative cable box options to consumers.

因此，本屆政府已經(jīng)在推動(dòng)FCC取消這些阻礙競(jìng)爭(zhēng)的障礙，讓新的競(jìng)爭(zhēng)者可以為用戶(hù)提供具有創(chuàng)新意義的有線(xiàn)電視機(jī)頂盒。

We know this works. For years, Americans had to rent our telephones from the phone company. This was a while ago, but when the FCC finally unlocked competition for home phones, the marketplace was flooded with all kinds of phone options with new features, and at different price points. Consumers suddenly had many options. And the whole industry moved forward as a result. The same can happen with cable boxes, and in dozens of areas of our economy-all of which can make a difference in your everyday life.

我們知道這樣做是有用的。曾幾何時(shí)，美國(guó)人民不得不從電話(huà)公司租用電話(huà)機(jī)。這個(gè)時(shí)期已經(jīng)過(guò)去了，但是當(dāng)FCC最終開(kāi)啟家用電話(huà)競(jìng)爭(zhēng)之后，市場(chǎng)上涌入了各種各樣的電話(huà)，擁有各種新的功能，各個(gè)級(jí)別的價(jià)格都有。這樣，消費(fèi)者一下子就有了多種多樣的選擇。整個(gè)產(chǎn)業(yè)也迅速向前發(fā)展。因此，同樣的改變也可以在有線(xiàn)電視機(jī)頂盒上發(fā)生，包括眾多其它行業(yè)也是如此，這些改變將為大家的生活帶來(lái)不一樣的變化。

The bottom line is, competition is good for consumers, workers, businesses, and our economy. So I'm going to keep doing everything I can to make sure that our free market works for everyone. Thanks, and have a great weekend.

最重要的就是，競(jìng)爭(zhēng)對(duì)消費(fèi)者、勞動(dòng)者、企業(yè)以及我們的整個(gè)經(jīng)濟(jì)發(fā)展都是有利的。因此，我將繼續(xù)盡我所能，確保自由市場(chǎng)服務(wù)于每一個(gè)人。謝謝大家！周末愉快！

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