本期《经济学人》刊登老友 Isaac DiIanni 的短信，指出巴菲特与盖茨的“行善”，并不是对社会的“补偿”。试译如下：

 

先生：

 

在表彰巴菲特和盖茨诸君的行善行为时，你们认可了这样的观点，即在资本主义社会里，胜利者家应该“拿出其部分财富来补偿失败者”（见 Billanthropy，7月1日）。好像盖茨这样的创造者，是靠服务顾客来赚钱的，而顾客也在交易中得益。有人认为创造者有义务“回馈”社会，这种观点暴露出他们不明白最基本的经济原理：自愿交易使买卖双方都得益。富人是否应该帮助穷人，是重要的伦理问题；但混淆了“行善”与“补偿”的概念，则只是经济学不过关而已。

 

ISAAC DIIANNI
菲尔法斯特，弗吉尼亚州

 

Sir -

In praising Warren Buffett, Bill Gates and others for their philanthropy, you endorse the view that capitalism\'s winners should "use some of their wealth to compensate the losers" ("Billanthropy," July 1st).  Innovators like Mr Gates make money by serving their customers, who also gain from the exchange.  The idea that wealth creators have a duty to "give back" betrays a lack of understanding of that most basic principle of economics: voluntary trade benefits both parties.  Whether the wealthy should help the poor is an important ethical question, but to confuse charity with compensation is just bad economics.

ISAAC DIIANNI
Fairfax, Virginia