美国人有反思过自己体制的问题吗？ 第1页

美国人有两种，有钱人，和穷人。美国的体制对有钱人的好处太多了，美国苦的是穷人，然而美国的穷人并没有什么本事，要么就是啃着炸鸡汉堡可乐，肥胖到老，要么就是刀枪毒品，砍砍杀杀的一辈子。美国的底层根本就没有权力，也没有能力去影响美国的体制。

在Quora上有人问了这样一个问题，What are the advantages of the Chinese political system of having government officials chosen by the political party rather than by the people, as in the US system? What are the disadvantages? 我把答案和翻译贴一下。翻译主要是机翻，然后自己稍微修正了一下。以下是最高赞回答：

What are the advantages of the US Navy system of having officers chosen by the Bureau of Naval Personnel rather than by the people?

Let’s look at the job description. Running a $12 billion, 4,000-man aircraft carrier requires officers who have devoted their lives to preparing for the responsibility and are willing to spend years away from home, being paid a fraction of what they could make in civilian life, taking orders from people they don’t like, eating restricted diets, sleeping odd hours, observing a more restricted moral code than civilians, and being constantly watched for signs of dishonesty or disloyalty and tried in special courts if they err.

Such people are rare: many are called by the lure of seafaring and white uniforms and only experienced experts can pick the standouts from the duds. The idea that they would join a political party and campaign for election to admiral is laughable.

Running America is much, much harder than running an aircraft carrier because mistakes can kill millions and cause generations of misery, yet we insist that Congresspeople belong to a party and campaign for election.

There’s no reason for this and it has nothing to do with democracy: it’s just the way the Romans did it and the British copied the Romans and we copied the British.

It has rarely worked well for the common people but it works for wealthy elites because parties and elections force ambitious people to compete for campaign funds just as they did in Rome and Britain.

To this day, rich elites in Greece, Rome, Britain and the US control politicians this way. Rich people also control the media which are always telling us we live in a democracy and we’re very, very lucky because, um, we live in a democracy even though our wages haven’t risen in 40 years and our politicians’ policies have killed millions of people and caused generations of misery around the world.

The Chinese leadership system resembles the Navy’s because running a $25 trillion, 1,400,000,000-person country requires officials who have devoted their lives to preparing for the responsibility and are willing to spend years away from home, being paid a fraction of what they could make in civilian life, taking orders from people they don’t like, eating restricted diets, sleeping odd hours, observing a more restricted moral code than civilians and being constantly watched for signs of dishonesty or disloyalty and tried in special courts if they err.

As Evan Kun says, below, the key element here–as with naval admirals–really is accountability. China since the Sui and Tang dynasties have exercised the idea of meritocratic elitism that looks heavily at one’s accountability.

China’s political system works so well because officials are accountable and citizens exercise democratic control over their policies. They do so because, after the politicians have left the stage, everyone has to live with the results of their policies for decades.

When officials wanted to build the Three Gorges Dam China’s Congress said, “Whoa! Nobody has ever spent that much money in one place so we want to see a trial of the project before we approve it”. They told the experts to spend ten years building the smaller Gezhouba Dam downstream to test their ideas and only after they inspected it did they approve the Three Gorges.

Chinese congresspeople are volunteers, ordinary patriotic citizens whose job requires prudence and common sense. That’s why they’ve made so few mistakes and why their wages have doubled every decade for 40 years and why their policies haven’t killed millions of people and caused generations of misery around the world. In fact, they’ve done the opposite.

It’s called ‘democracy’. Some day, after we've exhausted every other possibility, we might try it.

翻译：

（译者注，人家只是从海军来引入讨论，没跑题）美国海军系统由海军人事局而不是人民选拔军官的优势是什么？

让我们看一下职位描述。经营一艘价值120亿美元，可容纳4,000人的航母，他们需要全身心地为责任做准备，并愿意花数年的时间在外地生活，他们的薪水只是平民生活的一小部分，并接受他们的命令。饮食受限，不固定时间睡觉，遵守比平民更严格的道德准则，经常被监视是否有不诚实或不忠诚的迹象，并在犯错时在特别法庭审判。

喜欢做这种工作的人很少见：许多人因航海和白色制服的诱惑而被召唤，只有经验丰富的专家才能从平庸的人中脱颖而出。如果你认为他们热衷于加入政党参加竞选海军上将， 那就太可笑了。

运营美国比运营航空母舰要困难得多，因为错误可能导致数百万人丧生并造成几代人的痛苦，但我们坚持认为，国会议员应属于政党和竞选活动。

这没有道理，并且与民主无关：这只是罗马人这样做的方式，英国人抄袭了罗马人，我们也抄袭了英国人。

政党和选举对普通百姓很少有很好的表现，但对富裕的精英却有用，因为政党和选举迫使有抱负的人像在罗马和英国那样，争夺竞选资金。

时至今日，希腊，罗马，英国和美国的富裕精英人士以这种方式控制着政客。富人还控制着媒体，这些媒体总是告诉我们，我们生活在一个民主国家，我们非常非常幸运，因为，尽管我们的工资在40年来没有增加，而且我们的政治家的政策已经制定，但我们生活在一个民主国家， 虽然这个国家杀死了数百万人，并在世界各地造成了几代人的痛苦。

中国的领导体制与海军类似，因为要管理一个拥有25万亿美元，14亿人的国家，要求官员愿意奉献生命来履行这项责任，并愿意花数年的时间在外地生活，他们的薪水只是文职人员的一小部分。接受他们不喜欢的人的命令，节食，不痛快的饮食习惯，睡眠时间零散，遵守比平民更为严格的道德准则，并不断观察是否有不诚实或不忠诚的迹象，并在犯错的情况下在特别法庭进行审判。

正如埃文·昆（Evan Kun）在下文中所述，与海军上将一样，这里的关键要素确实是责任制。自隋唐以来，中国一直实行精英专制主义的思想，这种思想主要是对自己的问责制进行的。

中国的政治体系运转良好，因为官员负责任，公民对其政策实行民主控制。之所以这样做，是因为在政界人士离开舞台后，数十年来每个人都必须遵守其政策的成果。

当官员们想建造三峡大坝时，中国代表大会说：“哇！没有人在一个地方花费过那么多钱，因此我们希望在批准该项目之前先对其进行试验”。他们告诉专家们花十年的时间在下游修建较小的葛洲坝大坝，以检验他们的想法，直到他们检查了这个工程后，他们才批准三峡。

中国国会议员是志愿者，是普通的爱国公民，他们的工作需要谨慎和常识。这就是为什么他们很少犯错误的原因，为什么他们的工资在40年中每十年翻一番的原因，为什么他们的政策没有杀死数百万人，并在世界各地造成了数代痛苦的原因。实际上，他们做了相反的事情。

这就是所谓的“民主”。有一天，在我们用尽其他所有可能性之后，我们可能会尝试一下。

你看，也有美国人羡慕咱们。我觉得我们倒没人家捧的那么高，但确实是咱们正在前进的方向。我们还是得看到前方困难重重，戒骄戒燥，保持乐观，继续努力！

大家都是人，为何非要难为美国人呢，更何况还是一大群信教的。

纠偏这种事情，真的就是精英阶层说了算吗？策略定好了，谁给他们做执行，精英阶层自己吗？还不是得靠底层和中间层。

纠偏这种事情，成本最低的是用外部因素来驱动。内部驱动力，用来锦上添花最好。