Thoughts to you from yours truly - ( 58 ) - Feb., 25, 2011

Thoughts to You from Yours Truly - ( TYYT ) - ( 58 ) - Micro and Macro View ( 微觀與宏觀 ) - Feb., 25, 2011

To be a smart thinker we must avoid all fatal pitfalls in our reasoning process. Normally, one plus one equals two. However, there are exceptions to the rule. The difference between micro and macro situations is a case in point. Micro view generally refers to the individual unit's perspective while macro means from the point of view of the whole environment or group like society at large. For example, psychology is the study of individual behaviour and sociology concerns behaviours as a group. Similarly, microeconomics is the study of behaviour of an individual economic entity and macroeconomics concerns the working of the whole economy.
要有醒目的思維，我們必須避免思想上的誤差。在普通情況，一加一是會等於二，但是也有例外的情況。微觀與宏觀的不同角度，便是屬於這種例外了。微觀是指以個人單位的看法，而宏觀就是以整體或者社會的角度看事物。例如，心理學是有關個人行為思想。而社會學就是群體或社會性的行為和反應。同樣地，微觀經濟是有關經濟個體的行為和反應，宏觀經濟是關乎整體或整個社會的研究。


There is a well known phenomenon in economics called the " paradox of thrift ". On the individual level, the more a person saves the richer he or she becomes. On the contrary, if society as a whole decreases its total spending the whole economy becomes poorer due to the multiplier effect. As you save $100 from your usual weekend dining the restaurant in question loses $100 business. If more people are doing just that the restaurant owner will have to reduce the number of staff and related food supply. The sagged staff will in turn have to reduce their spending due to their job loss by cutting say, their usual weekend movie. As more unemployed people do that the theatre may have to close down creating more unemployed people who must again reduce their usual spending in turn. So, the initial reduction of your $100 can add up to $100 plus the reduced spending of the sagged restaurant workers plus that of the unemployed theatre staff and so on. This is the negative multiplier effect. To prevent this disastrous scenario from happening, the government must increase public spending in infrastructure construction or use tax reduction to prop up consumption ( fiscal measures ) or reduce interest rates to encourage more private consumption ( monetary measures ) to avoid an economic recession.
在經濟學上，有一個出名的現象，名叫「節約的反效果」。在微觀層面，一個人儲蓄越多，個人便越富有。相反地，在社會層面，如果總消費減少，便會產生倍數的經 濟收縮。原因是這樣的，當你少花費$100去吃一個週末晚餐時， 餐館便失去$100生意，多了人節約，餐館老闆可能要裁員。失業的人或者要節省而不再看週末電影，這樣一來，戲院老闆又要裁員自保。這樣一來，整個社會便 損失了不止原本的$100,並且加上餐館和戲院失業員工的減少花費，形成惡性循環，消費倍數減少。要避免這種損害，政府必須增加公共開支 （ 財政措施），或者以減少稅收來刺激經濟增長。減低利息 （ 金融措施），也可以刺激消費。


The lesson to be learned here is that more is different due to complex human behaviour and interaction. Therefore, things must not be viewed in isolation but must be put in the proper perspective of the whole situation. One citizen throwing one piece of rubbish is not a big problem ( micro view ) but everyone doing that will cost society billions of dollars disposing of rubbish ( the macro view ). Thus, we must think smart as modern global citizens.
從以上例子，我們可以得到以下教訓，就是多了互動單位和因素，結果完全會與單一因素不同。因此，分析事物必須整體和全面作考慮。一個人拋一點垃圾不成大問 題（ 微觀看法），每一個人都是垃圾蟲，便要社會支付數以千萬的費用來處理了（ 宏觀看法）。因此，作為今天的世界公民，我們必須擁有醒目的思維。


JKHC ( 鄭冠合 )