美国梦的象征：小企业大地360

美国梦的象征：小企业 | 文稿
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“One day I want to own my own business; be my own boss.”

「希望有一天我能自己创业，自己做老板。」

Probably nothing embodies the essence of the American Dream more than that thought.

大概没有哪个想法比这更能体现美国梦的精髓了。

And what American hasn’t had it?

哪个美国人没有这个想法呢？

Henry Ford had it. Oprah Winfrey had it. Steve Jobs had it.

亨利·福特有。欧普拉·温芙蕾有。史蒂夫·乔布斯有。

So did the owner of your favorite food truck.

你中意的餐车老板也有这个想法。

So have countless others.

无数人也有。

Many of those people came to the US because they believed their best chance to achieve it was here, in America.

他们许多人来到美国，是因为他们相信最有机会实现这个想法的地方，就是美国。

Many have been rewarded for their boldness.

他们的胆量也大多得到了回报。

Many have not.

也有许多人没有。

Starting a business, as everyone knows, is fraught with obstacles.

众所周知，创业路上充满障碍。

But still countless Americans risk it—risking everything to make it happen.

但无数美国人依然甘愿冒险——倾尽一切也要去做。

Why?

为什么？

Of course, we already know the answer.

当然，我们已经知道答案。

Because owning your own business represents freedom.

因为拥有自己的企业代表着自由。

You may miss some your kids' soccer games, need to take out a second mortgage and work hundred-hour weeks, but ultimately you are in charge of your own destiny.

你可能会错过你孩子几场球赛，必须做二次抵押，每周工作上百小时，但最终主宰你命运的是你自己。

You are independent.

你是独立的。

You are free.

你是自由的。

And that’s exactly the reason Big Government despises small business.

这正是为什么大政府蔑视小企业。

Big Government is all about control.

大政府最关心的就是控制。

And small business is very hard to control.

小企业是非常难控制的。

Big Business is much easier to manage. Why? Because there aren’t that many of them.

大企业要容易管得多。为什么？因为他们数量并不多。

But there are a lot of small businesses.

而小企业为数众多。

Nail salons. Car repair shops. Local gyms. Restaurants.

美甲沙龙、修车店、本地健身房、餐厅。

In fact, there are more than 30 million small businesses in America. These businesses employ approximately half the workforce, and account for around half of the entire US GDP.

实际上，美国有超过三亿家小企业。这些企业雇佣了大约一半的劳动力，并贡献了美国大约一半的 GDP。

Their endless variety from pest control to dry cleaners to family farms is the very fabric of American commerce. Any product or service you can think is covered by a small business somewhere.

他们种类繁多，从害虫防治到干洗店到家庭农场，正是他们构建起美国的商业。你能想到的任何产品和服务都有某个小企业提供。

Small businesses are why America became the richest nation in the world. Let’s not forget that every successful big business started out as a small business.

小企业是美国成为世界上最富裕国家的原因。请别忘记每一家成功大企业一开始都是从小企业做起的。

There’s no magic to it, really. Give individuals the chance to be free and creative and they will be.

当中其实没什么神奇的。给予个人自由和创造的机会，他们就会这么做。

Then came March 2020.

然后 2020 年三月来了。

And this engine of economic growth came to a sudden and shocking halt.

这一经济增长引擎令人始料不及地停止了。

It was the single greatest disaster in the history of American small business.

这是美国小企业史上最大的一场灾难。

For the first time ever, the government shut down the economy. Well, they shut down a part of it—primarily the small business part

有史以来第一次，政府把整个经济关停了。好吧，他们关停了一部分——主要是小企业那部分。

The big business part—Amazon, the chain groceries, the big box stores and drug stores—were allowed to remain open.

大企业——亚马逊，连锁杂货店、大卖场和药店——被允许继续营业。

Money that would normally have gone to small business went instead to big business.

通常会流向小企业的钱转而流向了大企业。

Had this been limited to a couple of weeks as first promised, it might have been okay. But it went on for months and months.

如果如最初承诺的那样，关停仅限于几个星期，那应该没什么问题。但它持续了一个又一个月。

Yes, government loans helped some small businesses to stay open, but it was the government that closed them down to begin with! And those small relief funds weren’t nearly enough for many. To cite one dismal statistic, one in six restaurants nationwide closed forever—that’s more than one hundred thousand across the country!

没错，政府贷款帮助了一些小企业维持营业，但一开始让它们停业的就是政府！这些小笔纾困资金对大多数企业来说也并不足够。举一个令人沮丧的统计数据，也就是全国六分之一的餐厅永远停业了——总计超过十万家。

And when things did return to something approaching normal, the small businesses that did survive had trouble finding people willing to work. It made more sense for many workers to stay home and collect money from the government. It also made sense for parents not rush back to work for fear the government would lock down schools again.

当生活总算可以说是恢复正常，幸存下来的小企业发现不好找到愿意工作的人了。这不难理解，许多工人宁愿呆在家领取政府发的钱。家长们也不着急着复工，因为他们担心政府会再次关闭学校。

And when workers did return to work, struggling small businesses had to compete with the thriving Big Businesses on wages and benefits, a competition they were sure to lose.

当工人们终于复工，艰难求存的小企业还得跟欣欣向荣的大企业在工资和福利上竞争，这场竞争他们无疑会输。

The rich got richer.

富人变得更富有。

The government got more power.

政府变得更有权力。

And small business got screwed.

小企业被搞惨了。

This is bad for America.

这对美国是不利的。

It’s bad because, more than any single entity, small business is America.

不利在于，比起其他任何实体，小企业代表了美国。

Having the ability to choose how you want to make a living is an important part of a free market and a free society—and small businesses embody that freedom.

能够选择自己的谋生方式是一个自由市场和自由社会的重要组成部分——小企业体现了这一自由。

America will not look or feel like the America we have known without a robust small business sector. It will be a far duller, more homogenous, less friendly, and less dynamic place.

美国将不再是我们所知的美国，假如我们没有强健的小企业部门。它会变成一个更乏味、更同质化、没那么友好，也没那么有活力的地方。

The desire that “One day I want to own my own business; be my own boss” still burns in the hearts of many Americans.

「希望有一天我能自己创业，做自己的老板」这一渴望依然在许多美国人的心里燃烧。

Let’s not let Big Government douse that flame.

不要让大政府浇灭这一火焰。

Much better to make government smaller and let the individual succeed.

让政府变小，让个人获得成功，这才是更好的做法。

That’s the pathway to a more innovative, more prosperous, more American future.

这条道路带领我们走向一个更多创新，更繁荣，更美国的未来。

The only pathway.

唯一的道路。

I’m Carol Roth, author of The War on Small Business, for Prager University.

我是卡罗尔·罗斯，The War on Small Business 的作者，为 PragerU 制作。