澳門手機店多
Joe和Bob正在澳門關閘附近一條開滿手機店的街上步行。
Joe：很多港澳人都喜愛買新的手機，好像是一種潮流的表達方式，每當有新的手機推出市場，人們就會爭先購買。
Bob：美國人平均每十八個月會換手機，這裡更加快。
Joe：這是件悲哀的事，因為人們購買越多手機，最終掉進垃圾堆的手機也越多。在堆塡區，這些電子廢物會釋放出有毒物質並破壞環境。
Bob：所以現時在加州，人們要為他們買的電子產品付一筆最終循環再造的費用。
Joe：這樣做很公平。
Bob：這條法例亦鼓勵人們用他們的電子產品更長時間，因為有了這個額外的收費，他們在購買新產品前都會三思。這法例亦對製造商有好處！
Joe：等等！當更少人買他們的東西時，不是應該損失利潤嗎？
Bob：不一定，當製造商推出新產品時，他們亦會損失現有產品的營業額，所以，太快推出新產品，在長遠來說，並不一定獲得更多利潤。
Joe：有道理！
Bob：如果製造商有更長的硏發時間，推出的新產品會比舊的有更明顯的改進，而且如果人們預先知道會用一個產品較長時間，他們也會願意付更多金錢。
第112期
Joe and Bob are now walking along a street filled with cellphone shops near the Macau Border Gate with Mainland China.
Joe：Many people in Hong Kong and Macau love to buy new cellphones, which are kind of like a fashion statement these days. As soon as a new one comes onto the market, people will scramble to buy it.
Bob：Americans on average replace their cellphones every 18 months. It’s even faster here.
Joe：Which is sad because the more phones people buy, the more phones will go to the dump eventually. In land fills this electronic waste releases toxins that can damage our environment.
Bob：That’s why in California now people need to pay a fee to cover the eventual cost of recycling the electronics they buy.
Joe：That’s fair.
Bob：This law also encourages people to use their electronics longer because, with this extra cost, they will think twice before buying new ones. It can benefit the manufacturers too！
Joe：Wait！Shouldn’t they be losing profits when less people buying their stuff?
Bob：Not really. When manufacturers introduce new products, they lose sales of their existing ones. So, putting out new products too quickly does not necessarily mean more profits in the long term.
Joe：That makes sense！
Bob：If manufacturers have longer development time, the new products coming out can be much better than the previous ones. And if people anticipate using a product for longer, they are willing to pay more for it.
收聽對話：http://english-macau.com/
李啟昌
