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The automobile illustrates the Point With great clarity. A technological innovation like streamlining or all-welded body construction may be rejected initially, but if it is important to the efficiency or economics of automobiles, it will reappear in different ways until it is not only accepted but universally regarded as. Today's automobile is no longer unique to a given company or even to a given national culture, its basic features are found, with variations, in automobiles in general, no matter who makes them.
以汽車為例即可非常清楚地證明這一點。諸如流線型或全焊接式車身結構一類的技術革新，一開始可能不被人接受，但假如 這種技術革新在提高汽車制造業的工作效率和經濟效益方面確有巨大作用，它便會一再地以各種變異的形式出現，直到最終它不僅會被接受，而且會被大家公認為是一種寶貴的成果。今天的汽車再也找不出某個汽車公司或某個民族文化的標志性特征了。一般的汽車，不管產于何地，其基本特征都大同小異。
A few years ago the Ford Motor Company came up with the Fiesta, which it called the "World Car." Advertisements showed it surrounded by the flags of all nations. Ford explained that the cylinder block was made in England, the carburetor in Ireland, the transmission in France, the wheels in Belgium, and so forth.
幾年前，福特汽車公司制造出一種菲愛斯塔牌汽車，并將其稱為"世界流行車"。這種車出現在廣告上的形象是周圍環繞著世界各國的國旗。福特公司解釋說，這種汽車的汽缸活塞是英國產的，汽化器是愛爾蘭造的，變速器是法國產的，車輪是比利時產的，諸如此類，等等等等。
The Fiesta appears to have sunk Without a trace. But the idea of a world car was inevitable. It was the automotive equivalent of the International Style. Ten years after the Fiesta, all of the large automakers were international. Americans had Plants in Europe, Asia, and South America, and Europeans and Japanese had plants in America and South America, and in the Soviet Union Fiat Fiat (= Fabbrica Italiana Automobile Torino ) workers refreshed themselves with Pepsi-Cola). In the fullness of time international automakers will have plants in Egypt and India and the People's Republic of China.
這種菲愛斯塔牌汽車現在似乎已完全銷聲匿跡了，但這種制造世界流行汽車的設想計劃卻是勢在必行的。這表明汽車業也像建筑等行業一樣在向國際流行風格的方向發展。菲愛斯塔牌汽車問世十年后，所有大型汽車制造公司都已國際化。美國人在歐洲、亞洲和南美洲都設了汽車廠。歐洲人和日本人也把他們的汽車廠設到了美國、南美洲以及蘇聯(菲亞特公司的工人在那兒可以喝到百事可樂來消乏解渴)。當時機成熟的時候，這些跨國型的汽車制造公司還會把他們的汽車廠設在埃及、印度和中華人民共和國。
