有聲英文閱讀-金錢及金錢的功用是什么？

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What Is Money and What Are Its Functions?

Money is something you've been familiar with throughout your life. In fact, you may already consider yourself an expert on the subject. You regularly use money to measure the value of things you own. You also have some of it in your pocket and in bank accounts. It might surprise you to learn that there's a great deal of disagreement among economists about what money is and how to measure it. Money serves a number of functions, and any definition of money must consider all of its functions.

The four major functions of money are as a medium of exchange, a standard of value, a standard of deferred payment, and a store of value.

A Medium of Exchange. As a generally accepted medium of exchange, money rules out the need for barter, the direct exchange of one item for another. Barter is a very inconvenient means of trading because it requires the double coincidence of wants. A seller with a good or service to offer must search for a buyer who has exactly what the seller desires. For example, if a baker wants meat, he must search for a person who sells meat and wants bread under a barter system.

Because money is generally accepted as payment for may purchase, a baker who sells bread for money can use the money to buy meat or anything else he wants.
A Standard of Value. Money provides a unit of account that serves as a standard to measure value. The value of an item is a measure of what a person will sacrifice to obtain it. How much is a two-week vacation in Hawaii worth to you? If you're like most people, you'll probably respond to such a question by valuing the vacation in dollars - way $2,000 - rather than in terms of other things (like your car).

Whether or not you're conscious of it, you're constantly valuing items in dollars. As a standard of value, money allows the addition of values of many different items as automobiles, repairs, and all other goods and services. The concept of GNP is useless without a standard of value such as the dollar.

A standard of Deferred Payment. Many contracts involve promises to pay sums of money in the future. The unit of account for deferred payment of debts is also money. If you borrow money to buy a car, the loan contract specifies how much you must pay back every month and the number of months required to satisfy your obligation. However, money serves its function as a standard of deferred payment only if its purchasing power remains fairly constant over time. If the price level rises, the future purchasing power of money over time will go down. Similarly, a decrease in the price level will increase the future purchasing power of money.

A Store of Value. Money can also serve as a store of value that can be quickly converted to good and services. Money as the actual medium of exchange is completely liquid, meaning it can immediately be converted to goods and services without any inconvenience or cost. Other assets that serve as stores of value must first be sold to be converted into a generally accepted medium of exchange. There are often costs and inconvenience associated with liquidating other assets. Holding money as a store of value thus can reduce the transaction costs involved in everyday business.

金錢及金錢的功用是什么？

錢是人一生中所非常熟悉的東西。實際上，很可能你已經(jīng)認為自己就是這方面的專家了。你總是用錢來衡量你所擁有的一切東西的價值。你的口袋里和銀行往來帳戶上也總是有一定數(shù)量的錢。可是經(jīng)濟學家們對于金錢是什么，對于怎樣來衡量金錢，卻有許許多多不同的意見，你若知道了這一情況或許會大吃一驚。

錢的功能和作用有很多，給金錢所下的任何定義必須能把金錢的一切功用都包括進去。

錢的四種主要的功能和作用就是：交易媒介、價值標準、賒賬標準、價值儲備。

交易媒介。因為一般人都把金錢當然交易媒介，這就不必再進行物物交換了，即不必再以一種商品去交換另一種商品了。物物交換是一種很不方便的交易方式，因為買賣雙方的需要都能吻合才行。想出售商品或勞務的賣主必須搜找這樣一個買家，在這個買家手里正好有賣主想要得到的東西。例如，用物物交換的交易方式，如果一個賣面包的想要得到肉，那他就必須找一個想得到面包的賣肉的人才能交易。因為錢是一般人都能接受的一種購買任何商品的支付手段，所以一個賣面包的，賣了面包得到了錢，就可以用錢去買肉或者去買他所想買的任何別的東西。

價值標準。錢是一種計算單位，用這個計算單位可作為衡量價值的標準。一件商品的價值要由一個人為得到該商品應付多少錢來衡量。一個人到美國夏威夷州去度假兩周該花多少錢？如果你像大多數(shù)人一樣，也許你若回答度這一次假的價值的問題，你會用錢數(shù)來回答，比如你回答說$2000，而不會用其他東西的（例如汽車）的數(shù)字來回答。不管你意識到?jīng)]有，反正你總是用美元來衡量某些開支項目的價值。金錢，作為價值標準，能把許多不同的開支項目，比如各種汽車、大修理費和所買的其他所有的商品和勞務費用，加到一起，總共花了多少錢。如果沒有像美元之類的價值標準，那么國民生產(chǎn)總值這類概念就毫無用處。

賒賬標準。許多合同里都有保證將來分幾次付款的諾言。分期付款債務的計算機單位也是錢。如果你貸款去買一輛汽車，那么借貸合同上就規(guī)定了你每月要償還多少錢，規(guī)定了你償清債務所需的月份數(shù)字?？墒牵挥性诮疱X的購買力在一段時間內(nèi)保持相對穩(wěn)定的條件下，金錢才能起到賒賬延期支付標準的作用。如果物價水平在上漲，那么在將來的一段時期內(nèi)金錢的購買力就會下降。同樣道理，如果物價水平在下降，那么金錢的購買力就會上漲。

價值儲存。金錢也能起到儲存價值的作用，所儲存的價值可以迅速轉(zhuǎn)化成商品或者勞務。金錢既然是實際上的交易媒介，它是完全可以流通的。也就是說金錢可以立即轉(zhuǎn)換成任何商品或任何勞務而不會有任何不便之處，不須付出任何代價?？墒瞧渌Y產(chǎn)若作為價值儲存起來，要想轉(zhuǎn)換就必須首先把它賣掉，這才能使之轉(zhuǎn)換成一般人都能接受的交易媒介，而在變賣其他資產(chǎn)時，還經(jīng)常要支出一些附加費用，這很不方便?？墒怯辛司哂袃Υ鎯r值的金錢，就可以免去了日常買賣中的交易費用。