異類之不一樣的成功啟示錄 第88期:經濟大蕭條扼殺致富夢

Maurice Janklow was born in 1902.

莫里斯·詹克洛出生于1902年，

When the Depression started, he was newly married and had just bough his big car,

經濟大蕭條開始時，他剛結婚不久，剛買了一輛新車，

moved to Queens, and made his great gamble on the writing-paper business. His timing could not have been worse.

剛搬到皇后區(qū)，他把全部賭注都押在撰寫商業(yè)法律文件上，但他的時機實在是糟糕透了。

"He was going to make a fortune," Maurice Janklow says of his father.

“他打算大賺一筆，”莫特·詹克洛講到他的父親時說，

"But the Depression killed him economically.

“但是經濟大蕭條將扼殺了他的致富夢，

He didn't have any reserves, and he had no family to fall back on.

他沒有一點儲蓄，也沒有可以求助的人。

And from then on, he became very much a scrivener-type of lawyer.

從那時起，他變成了一個完全書記式的律師。

He didn't have a courage to take risks after that. It was too much for him.

打那以后，他沒有勇氣再冒險，他受夠了。

My father used to close titles for twenty-five dollars.

我父親曾經因為25美元出讓了自己的法律文案的所有權。

He had a friend who worked at the Jamaica Savings Bank who would throw him some business.

他有一個在牙買加儲蓄銀行工作的朋友，他的這位朋友經常照顧我父親一些生意。

He would kill himself for twenty-five bucks, doing the whole closing, title reports.

為了25美元，我父親放棄文案的所有權，為此他幾乎要自殺。

For twenty-five bucks! I can remember my father and mother in the morning," Janklow continued.

就是為了25美金!”“我還記得有天早上，我的父親和母親在一塊商量，”詹克洛接著說，

"He would say to her, 'I got a dollar of seventy-five. I need ten cents for the bus, ten cents for the subway, a quarter for a sandwich,' and he would give her the rest. They were that close to the edge."

“他對她說，‘我現(xiàn)在只有1美元75美分，我坐巴士需要10美分，坐地鐵需要10美分，買三明治需要花15美分’，然后他把剩下的給了我母親。他們是那樣窘迫。”

Now contrast that experience with the experience of someone like Mort Janklow who was born in the 1930s.

現(xiàn)在，讓我們來看看那些出生在20世紀30年代的人，看他們的經歷與同在20世紀30年代出生的莫特·詹克洛有什么異同。

If you would look at the birthrates in the United States for the first half of the twentieth century,

看一下下面的圖表。這張圖表顯示了美國從1910年至1950年的出生率。

you'll see that in 1950 there are almost three million babies born.

在1915年，幾乎有300萬的新生兒，

By 1935, that number drops by almost six hundred thousand.

到了1935年，新生兒的數(shù)目降到60萬，

And then, within a decade and a half, that number's back over three million again.

又過了15年，新生兒的數(shù)目又重回到300萬。

To put it in more precise terms, for every one thousand Americans, there were 29.5 babies born in 1950;

更確切地說，每1000個美國人中，就有29.5個嬰兒出生于1915年;

18.7 babies born in 1935; and 24.1 babies born in 1950.

18.7個嬰兒出生于1935年;24.1個嬰兒出生于1950年。

The decade of the 1930s is what is called a "demographic trough."

20世紀30年代因此被稱為“出生低谷”。

In response to the economic hardship of the Depression, families simply stopped having children,

為了在經濟大蕭條時期度過困境，美國的許多家庭都不要孩子，

and as a result, the generation born during that decade was markedly smaller than both the generation that preceded it

結果是，那10年出生的一代人在數(shù)量上比在他們之前出生

and the generation that immediately followed it.

及在他們之后出生的人顯著減少。