投资型社会的生成与治理转型

The Rise of Investing Society and the Transformation of Governance

随着市场的演化,投资正成为普通人的日常经验,而投资的观念也开始改变我们对其他经济行为以及整个社会过程的认识。从人力资本投资角度出发,无论生产、消费还是储蓄都可以被重新解释为投资过程的不同环节,从而将整个社会过程变成了投资过程。投资需要理性,而投资理性是通过对机会成本与预期收益的计算发挥作用的。这种计算会突出可衡量结果的优先性,而由于需求的满足难以衡量,它在投资决策中的重要性就不断下降。传统上,国家的职责在于满足社会的福利需求,且这本身就是有价值的。而从投资理性出发,只有当国家的需求满足行为能够带来其他可衡量收益时才是有价值的。基于这一逻辑,当代国家纷纷开起了以社会投资为名的福利改革,逐渐将自身重塑为一种投资型国家。

With the evolution of modern market, investing has become daily experience of ordinary people, and the concept of investment has become to change our understanding of other economic behaviors and even the whole social process. From the standpoint of human capital investment, production, consumption and saving can all be re-interpreted as different stages of investment, which makes the whole social process some kind of investment process. Investment should be rational, and investment rationality functions through the calculation of opportunity cost and expectation benefit. This calculation gives priority to measurable outcomes, as a result, human needs, because of their immeasurability, has become less important in investing decisions. Traditionally, the aim of modern state is to meet societal needs, but now, under the guidance of investment rationality, it is only valuable for the state to meet societal needs when its needs-satisfying actions can also bring measurable outcomes. This logic has changed the way welfare state exists, making it more like an investing state.