評論
打印
On one occasion, Borgenicht realized that his only chance to undercut bigger firms was to convince the wholesalers to sell cloth to him directly, cutting out the middlemen.
一次，路易斯突然意識到，他唯一能夠同大公司進行競爭的機會就是說服零售商將布料直接賣給他，而去除中間商的環節，
He went to see Mr. Bingham at Lawrence and Company, a "tall, gaunt, white-bearded yankee with steel-blew eyes."
他直接找到位于勞倫斯的比格漢姆先生和他的公司，他是一個又高又瘦、留著白色胡須、有著深藍色眼鏡的美國佬。
There the two of them were, the immigrant from rural Poland, his eyes ringed with fatigue, facing off in his halting English, against the imperious yankee.
那里有兩個來自波蘭鄉村的移民，路易斯的眼睛里流露出疲憊的神情，他用磕磕巴巴的英語來試圖說服這個傲慢的美國佬。
Borgenicht said he wanted to buy forty cases of cashmere.
路易斯說他想買50件開司米，
Bingham had never before sold to an individual company, let alone a shoestring operation on Sheriff street.
比格漢姆從來沒有直接同個人公司做過交易，更別提這種位于Sheriff街上的一家小公司了。
"You have a hell of a cheek coming in here and asking for favors!" Bingham thundered. But he ended up saying yes.
“每天有成群的人跑到我這里來，要我幫忙。”比格漢姆大聲說道。但是最終，他還是同意了路易斯的要求。
What Borgenicht was getting in his eighteen-hour days was a lesson in the modern economy.
鮑各尼特18小時的案例可以作為現代經濟的學習案例。
He was learning market research. He was learning manufacturing.
他學習做市場調查，他學習生產流程
He was learning how to negotiate with imperious yankees.
他學習怎樣同傲慢的美國佬來討價還價。
He was learning how to plug himself into popular culture in order to understand new fashion trends.
他學習了解流行文化，目的是可以了解流行趨勢。
The Irish and Italian immigrants who came to New York in the same period didn't have that same advantage.
同一階段移民到紐約的愛爾蘭人和意大利人就沒有這種優勢，
They didn't have a skill specific to the urban economy.
他們缺乏適應城市生活的特殊技能。
They went to work as day laborers and domestics and construction workers,
他們大多數都在白天上班、在家做工，或者作為建筑工人。
jobs where you could show up for work every day for thirty years and never learn market research and manufacturing and how to navigate the popular culture and how to negotiate with the yankees, who ran the world.
那些30年如一日，每天都需要上班卻從沒機會學習市場調研、學習工廠生產流程、接觸流行文化以及與那些掌握著社會命脈的美國人討價還價。
Or consider the fade of the Mexicans who immigrated to California between 1900 and the end of 1920s to work in the fields of the big fruit and vegetable growers.
或者想象一下那些在1900年到1920年期間移民到加利福尼亞州的墨西哥移民的命運。他們大多數都在大型的水果蔬菜種植園工作。
They simply exchanged the life of a feudal peasant in Mexico for the life of feudal peasant in California.
由于在加利福尼亞的務農生活，他們也隨之改變了墨西哥的封建農民的生活。
"The conditions in the garment industry were every bit as bad," Soyer goes on.
“服裝行業的狀況也不盡人如意”，索耶繼續說道，
"But as a garment worker, you were close to the center of the industry.
“但是作為一名服裝工人，你離行業的核心很近，
If you are working in the field in California, you have no clue what's happening to the produce when it gets on the truck.
如果你在加利福尼亞種植園里工作，那么當農作物被裝上貨車時，你是不會知道它是怎么被種植出來的”。
If you are working in a small garment shop, your wages are low, and your conditions were terrible, and your hours were long,
如果你在一家小小的服裝店鋪工作，盡管工資很低，工作環境也很惡劣，工作時間也很長，
but you can see exactly what the successful people are doing, and you can see how you can set up your own job."
但是你可以學習到成功人士的一舉一動。通過他們你也可以知道，自己如何能夠建立自己的事業。”
