即使是在最高尚的场所，也有可能潜藏着邪恶的交易。从我的办公室凭窗望去，可以看到一栋朴素的大楼。这里显然几十年来一直是一所高级妓院——从白天的活动中看不出来，只有到了晚上，才会有泄露隐情的行为暗示出它真正的商业功能。
与此同时，一层拐角处的房子被非法改造成了一间工业厨房，为少数民族餐馆备货。这里的员工都是移民。我怀疑（可能没有根据），并非所有人都持有完全合法的工作签证。旁边不远处是一家每天营业的酒吧，周五夜间，年轻人会在酒吧外交易摇头丸和其它消遣性毒品。每逢周末，在不远处的夜市会有不少摊贩摆摊售卖各种各样的假货和盗版产品，如梳妆用品和DVD等。
如果用批判的眼光来看，每个城镇都有成百上千家非法企业，由无视法律的企业主经营。它们大多规模很小，很快就会被别的企业取代。但也有一些规模庞大且地位稳固。许多企业着眼于满足对各种恶习的嗜好；其它不正当企业虽然可能会提供合法产品，但实现的唯一途径是违反各种法律，如税法、规划法、移民法，等等。这些都属于商界的阴暗角落，收入可能高达数十亿美元。
这些业务往往利润非常丰厚，无论官方如何努力，也无法长期阻止。如今对于卖淫和非法毒品的持续需求可能比以往任何时候都大。鉴于交易客户面临的艰难环境，无视税收、规划、健康与安全、知识产权、员工最低工资、员工权利等等的分包商制造的产品无疑比以往更受欢迎。
谁都不清楚黑色经济的规模——其本质上就是秘密的。官方文件并不存在，统计数据纯属猜测。在英国，黑色经济的规模也许占所公布的国内生产总值(GDP)的3%，也许高达12%。警方或政府也许并不像他们所愿意表现出来的那样，完全不了解地下商业世界的规模。在很多发展中国家，地下商业肯定占了所有经济活动的很大一部分，从而削弱了税收基础，增加了合法公司的经营难度。
常识告诉我们，在合法私营部门退出的领域，“非正式”经济就会得到蓬勃发展。但贫困城镇是否有更多灰色的不正当交易呢？富裕地区的回报更高，因此我猜测，非法企业的集中实际上反映了整体经济的情况。不法商人将以富有的罪人为榜样，追逐金钱的脚步。
这种种邪恶在多大程度上是反社会的呢？我毫不怀疑，人贩子和故意诱人吸食毒品的人是邪恶的。那些逃税的企业不会对公共服务成本做出贡献，因此它们是在免费享用其它所有人的贡献。
不过或许有人会说，一些——或许是大部分——黑色经济领域之所以能够蓬勃发展，唯一的原因在于官方征税过高，用令人窒息的官僚作风遏制了企业的发展。企业家大多依赖回头客，因此只有在提供市场公允价值的情况下才能取得成功。如果所有流氓商人销售的都是价格过高的次品，那么他们就会逐渐失去可供敲诈的顾客。但皮条客、毒品交易商和其它盗版者只不过是在为市场服务。
每年都有越来越多的证据表明，作为一个现代文明社会，我们应让那些普遍存在的活动变得合法。这样一来，它们就会纳入税收网络，并可以对它们进行充分的监管，确保瘾君子、妓女和其它可能的受害者的相对安全。当然，这些变革实施起来会很艰难，但可能由此减少的苦难会相当可观。
与此同时，非法交易将一如既往地进行——这是一个处于阴暗中的平行经济，涉及数十亿英镑的资金和数十万参与者。
译者/何黎
http://www.ftchinese.com/story/001035293
Sinister goings-on can lurk in even the most respectable places. From my office window, I can see a plain mews building. It has apparently been a high-class brothel for decades. You wouldn’t know it from the daytime activity – only at night is there telltale behaviour hinting at its true commercial function.
Meanwhile, round the corner a ground floor flat has been illegally converted into an industrial kitchen, making stock for ethnic restaurants. It is staffed entirely by immigrants. I have a suspicion, perhaps unfounded, that not all of them carry wholly legitimate work visas. And very close by there is an everyday pub, outside of which on a Friday night young men deal in ecstasy tablets and other recreational drugs. At weekends, in a street market not far away, there are stalls selling all manner of counterfeit and pirated products, from toiletries to DVDs.
If you look with a cynical eye, in every town and city there are hundreds and possibly thousands of criminal enterprises, run by entrepreneurs who are oblivious to the law. Most are small-time and relatively makeshift, but some are substantial and well established. Many feed an appetite for various vices; while other crooked firms may provide legal products, but only by breaking tax, planning, immigration and other laws. These are the outlaw elements of the business world, and their revenues run into the billions.
These operations are often so lucrative that no matter how hard the authorities try, they can never stop them for long. The persistent demand for prostitution and illegal drugs is probably greater than ever. And products made by subcontractors with no regard for tax, planning, health and safety, intellectual property laws, minimum wages, employee rights and so on are doubtless more popular than ever, given the tough conditions faced by their trade customers.
No one has any idea of the scale of the black economy – by its nature it is secret. The official filings don’t exist and the statistics are speculative. In the UK, it might be 3 per cent of the declared gross domestic product – or perhaps as high as 12 per cent. The police or the government may be more aware of the size of the world of underground commerce than they are willing to reveal. Certainly in many developing nations it is a material proportion of all economic activity, which undermines the tax base and makes it hard for legitimate companies.
Common sense suggests that such an “informal” economy flourishes where the legitimate private sector has retreated. But do deprived towns see far more off-the-books wheeling-dealing? In wealthy areas, the rewards are higher, so I suspect the concentration of illicit concerns actually mirrors that of the overall economy. The vice merchants will follow the money and the rich sinners.
How antisocial is all this wickedness? I have no doubt that individuals who traffic in humans and deliberately hook innocents on hard drugs are evil. And companies that evade tax do not contribute to the cost of public services and are, therefore, free riders on everyone else’s contributions.
Yet it can be argued that some – perhaps a majority – of constituents of the black economy only flourish because officialdom levies too much tax and smothers companies with stifling bureaucracy. Entrepreneurs mostly rely on repeat orders, and hence only succeed if they offer the market fair value. If all rogue traders sold overpriced, substandard goods then they would run out of customers to rip off. But the pimps, drug dealers and other pirates are simply servicing the market.
Each year, the evidence mounts that as a modern, civilised society we should decriminalise such ubiquitous activities. This move would bring them into the tax net and permit sufficient regulation to ensure the relative safety of addicts, prostitutes and other potential casualties. Of course, such changes would be tough to implement but the likely alleviation of misery would be considerable.
In the meantime, unlawful transactions will carry on as usual, a parallel economy in the shadows, involving billions of pounds and hundreds of thousands of participants.
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