Since the rise and fall and rise again of the new economy, the face of the American dream has gotten younger, richer — and more homebound. With the news full of 20-somethings who are making millions of dollars with ideas hatched on their laptops and in their dorm rooms (as the founders of YouTube, MySpace and Facebook have done), more and more teenagers are hoping to become the C.E.O.'s of their own companies, without ever leaving their bedrooms.
自從新經濟起起伏伏再揚眉吐氣後，美國夢的臉孔變得愈來愈年輕富有，而且多半是家庭企業。媒體不斷報導，廿來歲小伙子靠膝上型電腦在學校宿舍想出來的點子海賺數百萬美元的消息，YouTube，MySpace及Facebook創辦人的表現就是最好的例子。愈來愈多十來歲的青少年希望，大門不出，二門不邁，就能當自己公司的執行長。
"These kids want to make money," said Atoosa Rubenstein, 35, the former editor in chief of CosmoGirl, which she founded when she was 26, and Seventeen magazine. "They are being marketed to all the time, and they get what marketing is all about. Now it's social currency to have your own business. It used to be your wardrobe or your sport. Now your own business makes a statement about you and your interests. It almost breaks down into cliques: the future C.E.O. types, the fashionistas making T-shirts, the Webby guys tutoring adults on the computer or selling games on eBay."
「這些孩子很想賺錢，」CosmoGirl 35歲的前總編輯艾杜莎．魯賓斯坦說，她26歲那年創辦CosmoGirl及「十七歲」雜誌。「他們一天到晚被強迫推銷，他們十分了解行銷到底是怎麼回事，現在自行創業是「社會通貨」。過去全靠衣裝或運動取勝，現在則可以靠自己創業，對你和你的興趣做一番表述。這幾乎可以細分為幾大類：未來的執行長；製作Ｔ恤的時尚迷；或教成人電腦或在eBay上賣電子遊戲的網路小子。
ONE of Bradley Ziegler's favorite days is the day after Christmas, when the bargain bins at Toys "R" Us and Wal-Mart are filled with marked-down DVDs and GameCube games. As he has done for the past two years, Bradley will pick up an armful of $3.99 games and movies and then auction them for up to 10 times that on eBay to regular customers from Kentucky to Cyprus.
布萊德利．齊格勒最喜歡耶誕節過後，玩具反斗城和沃爾瑪百貨開始大減價，貨架上塞滿超低價的DVD和GameCube電玩。一如前兩年，布萊德利會抱回標價3.99美元的遊戲和影片，再以十倍價格在eBay上拍賣給從肯塔基州到塞浦路斯的老顧客。
His computer is off by 9:30 each night (a house rule), but he likes the fact that he can make $50 or more before breakfast the next morning. Because on eBay, nobody knows you're 15 (or cares if you're asleep).
家裡規定，他的電腦每晚九點半關機，但他樂見第二天早餐前至少可以賺進50美元，因為在eBay，沒有人知道你只有15歲（或在乎你是否在睡大覺）。
They call him Donald at the post office in his town in Bergen County, N.J., which Bradley thinks is pretty cool, though his mother, Susan Boyd, a first-grade teacher, would like her son to have a more philanthropic entrepreneurial hero.
在他住的紐澤西州伯根郡小鎮郵局，他們戲稱他叫「唐納」（地產大亨川普的名字），布萊德利覺得挺酷的，但他老媽蘇珊．波伊德，一位小一老師，希望她寶貝兒子能有更樂善好施的企業偶像。
While she is proud of him for intuitively discovering "what others have to take courses to learn," she said, "I wish the post office lady called him Mr. Gates instead of Donald."
她雖以兒子能憑直覺發掘「別人得上課才學得到的本事」為榮，她說，「我還是希望郵局的阿姨叫他（比爾）蓋茲，而不是唐納。」
For some time now, teenagers have been looking to entrepreneurs as pop icons — whether Gates or Trump — as much as they have to rock stars and athletes. Having your own business has become very cool; having your own business before your 20th birthday indescribably so.
已經有好一陣子，青少年一直奉企業家為流行天王偶像，不管是蓋茲或川普，幾乎和他們崇拜搖滾巨星及運動員一樣。自己開業變得超酷；在20歲生日前創業更是不可一世。
Sniffing a ripe market, book publishers and self-help authors are making wealth and investment guides for under-age readers. Books like "Rich Dad, Poor Dad for Teens: The Secrets About Money That You Don't Learn in School" put a capitalist spin on the old boomer mantra: never trust anyone over 30.
書商和自助作者嗅到這個成熟的市場，正為未成年讀者製作發財和投資指南，像《青少年的富爸爸，窮爸爸：學校沒教的賺錢祕笈》等書，對年長的嬰兒潮世代的真言，附加資本主義的詮釋：千萬別相信年過而立的人。
Matt Swift was a junior at the Salisbury School for boys in Salisbury, Conn. now a freshman at Georgetown University. He described his business plan: "We were in the middle of nowhere and the food was terrible and we thought, what's the best market for a boys' school"
史威夫特原為康乃狄克州沙里斯伯利男校高二學生，目前是喬治城大學新生。他形容自己的創業計畫：「我們不上不下，什麼也不是，伙食很差，我們在想，在男校什麼最有市場？」
Food was obviously the most viable option. With the blessing of the headmaster, Chisholm S. Chandler, he and two friends created a snack shop in a basement classroom. Their initial investment was $5,000 each (these are fortunate boys), and they paid a teacher $50 every Saturday to drive them to a Costco and a Sam's Club for supplies.
最可行的方案顯然是食物，在校長錢德勒默許下，他和兩名好友在教室地下室開點心鋪。一開始每人投資5000美元（他們都是有錢人家子弟），另外每周六付50美元給一位老師，開車戴他們到好市多及Sam's Club補貨。
Open for only 45 minutes after study hall each night, the place was an instant hot spot; beef jerky was their best seller. By Christmas they had a profit of $30,000, and began to funnel all of it into charities: Katrina and tsunami relief, computers and tutoring for a retirement home nearby, taking advantage of matching grants given by the Ford Foundation.
每晚晚自習後只開放45分鐘，這個小店立刻紅火，牛肉乾最暢銷，到了耶誕節，他們已賺了三萬美元，並開始把所有錢捐給慈善機構：卡翠娜和海嘯賑災，電腦及為附近一所退休之家教學，充分利用福特基金會所提供的相對獎金。
"We got a lot of flack in the beginning from teachers, so the charitable component was key," Mr. Swift said. "Most people weren't comfortable with the idea of our profiting off our fellow students. Our grades did slip in the beginning, mine from A's to C's, but when Mr. Chandler told us we'd lose the shop, we brought them up again. It was a powerful incentive."
「一開始，老師就幫我們大力推銷，因此慈善的要素是關鍵，」史威夫特說。「大部分人對我們賺同學的錢這個點子感到不安，我們的成績一開始果然退步，我就從Ａ退到Ｃ，但當錢德勒告訴我們，長此以往，我們會失去這個店面時，我們再把成績拉高，動機超強。」
The next year the school offered the boys the restaurant concession in a new student center, and Sarum's Snacks, as it was called, stepped onto a broader, though no less successful, stage. Last year they sold their assets to the school, Mr. Swift said, and deputized two seniors to take their place.
第二年，校方在新的學生中心給這些孩子餐館經營權，就叫Sarum點心鋪，貨源更廣，照樣成功。史威夫特說，去年，他們把資產賣給校方，並委託兩位高三學生經營。
The headmaster, Mr. Chandler, said the other day that there might have been "some raised eyebrows that we were allowing kids into uncharted territory, but part of education is trying something new." He continued, "If it failed, it would have been just as successful because they still would have learned something."
校長錢德勒日前說，可能有些人「對我們讓孩子涉入陌生的領域瞠目皺眉，但嘗試新事物本來就是教育的一環。」他又說，「即使失敗了也一樣成功，因為他們還是可以學到一些東西。」
《詞解》
new economy 新經濟
laptops 膝上型電腦
social currency 社會通貨
cliques 類別
fashionistas 時尚迷
Webby guys 網路小子
bargain bins 大減價
philanthropic 樂善好施
under-age 未成年
spin 詮釋
raise eyebrows 瞠目皺眉