????上周，我有幸受邀到梵蒂岡為250多名經濟學家、基金經理和學者做演講，內容是自由市場和商業實踐。我在演講中強調，我們不該因為現代社會的不公和收入差距而繼續怪罪于市場。

????相反，我們應該共同關注怎樣利用這個強大的體系去解決世界上最緊迫的社會問題。

????首先我們可以看到，貿易是人類活動的基石。它是如此的重要，以至于亞當?斯密在《國富論》中說以物易物的交易方式也許是人區別于動物的主要標志之一。從這個意義上講，自由市場以及賦予其生命的公司和人都是人類社會和生活的基本要素。

????我認為，2015年我們面臨的核心問題是很少有人認識到市場（乃至于創造并利用市場的公司）并不是收入差距或社會不公的根源。長期以來，人類社會也好，動物社會也好，一直都由不同的階層組成，這種現象遠早于全球資本市場的誕生。適者生存概念并非以市場為基礎，它是一條自然法則。即便在今天，一個嬰兒出生在哪里，父母是誰等不確定因素對其生存和發展的影響仍可能超過其他任何可衡量因素。

????市場帶來的其實是效率。它是迄今為止人類找到的最高效的資源創造和分配機制。在人類擺脫貧窮、延長壽命、打破重重障礙的發展歷史上，市場可以說是最成功的社會結構——比政府、文明社會和宗教都更為成功。僅在過去20年里，就有近10億人通過自由經營的企業擺脫極端貧困。我經常想，人們為什么還期望市場來縮小貧富差距或者提高道德水平呢？這似乎是一種超能力。2003年，我和約翰?喬斯特及杰夫?普費弗兩位教授一起寫了一篇論文，探討了“公平市場意識形態”的傾向。事實上，市場不可能對公平和正義的存在或缺失而負責。它們本身也不存在公平或不公平、道德或不道德的問題。市場就是市場，就像人的生命就是生命一樣。

????商業可以創造利潤，同樣也可以按照所有者期望的程度來改善社會福利。在這方面商業是很有效的。任何企業主都可以選擇壓縮利潤來提高工資，創造更好的工作環境并促進崗位培訓。他們可以給慈善基金捐款，或為社區、地區組織和非政府組織無償提供產品或服務，也可以對社區再發展以及環境可持續項目投資。實際上，股東們也可以通過選擇持有哪家公司的股票來實現這一切。

????問題在于，迄今為止，我所知道的大部分投資者，或者應該說大部分人，在進行投資決策時都選擇了追求利潤最大化，而不是促進社會福利。這是因為大多數人都希望投資為自己帶來更多的財富，也希望更早地退休。

????不過，對于商業活動是否有潛力解決貧窮和貧富不均等最緊迫的社會問題，我比以前任何時候都要樂觀。這不僅是因為我們看到了過去15年間的進步，也因為越來越多的年輕人開始選擇去那些社會目標清晰的公司工作，比如聯合利華、培生或愛立信。它們都是市值數十億美元的跨國公司,而非小型企業或小眾企業。它們的首席執行官均公開承諾，既要創造更多的利潤，也要創造更大的社會價值。

????通過有意識的選擇，通過企業所有者、股東、投資者和員工的選擇，我們每個人都有能力通過市場來構建一個更好的世界。但要做到這一點，我們必須通過對話（比如上周在梵蒂岡的那次對話）讓人們了解到，除了創造利潤，對于那些希望把社會原則放在首要位置的公司來說，建立資金池很重要。

????畢竟，只有通過人類的干預和人類的自由意志，我們才能為公平、道德和平等概念賦予生命。而這一過程則體現在我們每個人在日常生活中如何待人接物、如何開展工作，以及作為社會群體的一份子在互動和決策時力爭表達怎樣的價值觀。（財富中文網）

????本文作者為西北大學凱洛格商學院院長。

????譯者：Charlie

????審校：夏林

????I was honored to be invited to the Vatican last week to speak to more than 250 delegates from economists to fund managers to academics on free markets and the practice of business. As my remarks stressed, we need to stop blaming markets for the social injustices and income inequality of the modern age.

????Instead, we need to come together to focus on how we can use this powerful mechanism to address the world’s most pressing social issues.

????It’s helpful to start with the observation that trade is a cornerstone of human activity – so much so, that Adam Smith argued in The Wealth of Nations that the human propensity to barter is perhaps the primary activity that distinguishes men from animals. In this sense, free markets – and the firms and people who give them life – form the very fabric of human society and life.

????The core challenge in 2015, I believe, is that that too few people remember that markets (and by extension the companies that create and use them) are not the source of social inequality and injustice in the world. Human (and animal) societies have long organized around status hierarchies, well before the existence of global capital markets. Survival of the fittest is not a market-based concept, it is a nature-based concept. Even today, the simple luck of where and to whom a baby is born (human or animal) will have more impact on that being’s likelihood of surviving and thriving than just about any other measurable factor.

????What markets do bring to the table is efficiency. They are the most efficient mechanism humans have found for creating, distributing and allocating resources. They are arguably the most successful social structure in human history at lifting people out of poverty, extending life expectancies and breaking down barriers – more successful than governments, civil society and religions. In the past 20 years alone, nearly 1 billion people have been taken out of extreme poverty through the practice of free enterprise as noted in this article.I have often wondered why people also expect markets to be an equalizing or moral force – possessing seemingly supernatural powers. I wrote a paper with John Jost and Jeff Pfeffer back in 2003 exploring the tendency toward “fair market ideology.” The reality is that markets have no claim on fairness and justice, nor the lack thereof. They are not in and of themselves fair or unfair, moral or amoral. They simply are – just as human life is.

????Businesses can be used to promote social good, in addition to profit, as much as their owners choose. And they can do it in powerful ways. Any business owner can choose to reduce profits in order to pay higher wages, create better working conditions, and enhance job training. They can contribute to a charitable foundation or offer goods and services on a pro bono basis to communities, religious organizations and NGOs. They can invest in community redevelopment and environmental sustainability. Indeed, stockholders can also make these choices by picking which companies they own.

????The challenge is that to-date the majority of investors, and indeed the majority of people I know, have chosen to maximize profit over social good in their investment decisions. This is because most people I know want to earn more money rather than less on their investments. They want to retire sooner rather than later.

????That said, I am more optimistic than I have ever been about the potential for business to address the world’s most pressing social issues – including poverty and inequality. I’m encouraged not only by the progress we’ve seen in the past 15 years, but by the fact that more and more of our young people are seeking work in for-profit companies that articulate a clear social purpose – companies like Unilever, Pearson or Ericsson. These are not small enterprises or niche players. They are multi-billion dollar global corporations, whose CEOs have publicly committed to delivering both greater social value and profit.

????Through conscious choice — through our decisions as business owners, shareholders, investors, and employees — we each have the power through markets to create a better world. But to do that, we must use conversations like the one at the Vatican last week, to show people the importance of creating investment pools for companies that seek to bring social principles to the forefront, in addition to profit making.

????After all, it is only through human intervention, human free will, that we give concepts of fairness, morality and equality life. We each do this by how we treat people, how we undertake our work, and in the values we strive to embody in our social group memberships, interactions and decisions each day.

????Sally Blount is the Dean of Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University.