How do you get rich in today’s America? Founding an artificial-intelligence startup may look tempting, but most fail. Getting an advanced degree and slogging it out as a corporate lawyer(公司律师) or financier(金融家) was once a reliable path to wealth, but now looks threatened by ai. Perhaps you should look instead to the company that has plausibly(似乎合理地) created more millionaires than any other in history: McDonald’s. Most of its outlets are franchise(特许经营)s, run by independent firms that pay royalties(特许权使用费) to the brand—and often make a fortune. If fast food isn’t your thing, do not fear: the franchising model can be found everywhere from hotels to Pilates(普拉提) studios.
在今天的美国，你如何致富？创办一家人工智能初创公司可能看起来很诱人，但大多数都失败了。获得高等学位，然后作为公司律师或金融家埋头苦干，曾经是一条可靠的致富之路，但如今似乎受到了人工智能的威胁。也许你应该看看那些可能比历史上任何其他公司都创造了更多百万富翁的企业：麦当劳。它的门店大多是特许经营店，由独立公司运营，向品牌支付特许权使用费——而且往往能赚大钱。如果快餐不是你的菜，别担心：特许经营模式无处不在，从酒店到普拉提工作室都有。
They may not have the social cachet(声望) of a Wall Street corner office(角落办公室（高管办公室）), but franchises make many Americans wealthy. If reports are to be believed, the country has even recently minted(铸造；产生) its first billionaire franchisee(特许经营人). They also boost growth. More countries should try creating a franchise economy—and America should protect the one it has from overregulation(过度监管).
它们可能没有华尔街角落办公室的社会声望，但特许经营让许多美国人富有。如果报道可信，美国最近甚至出现了第一位亿万富翁加盟商。它们也促进了增长。更多国家应该尝试创建特许经营经济——而美国应该保护它已有的经济，避免过度监管。
Franchises have long been sneered at. As the model spread in the 1970s and 1980s it was derided by economists as little more than a cheap growth tactic in which franchisees stumped up the capital to open new outlets. Critics claim that franchisees are not “true” entrepreneurs, in the mould of(像……那样的) Elon Musk(埃隆·马斯克) or Steve Jobs(史蒂夫·乔布斯), but merely glorified(美化的；粉饰的) store managers obsessed with the illusion(幻觉；错觉) of being their own boss. Yet franchising has come to account for a steadily growing share of American business: there are almost 850,000 franchise outlets, run by a quarter of a million business-owners. One in eight businesses with at least one employee in America is a franchise—roughly double the share in its closest international rivals, such as Japan and Germany.
特许经营长期以来一直受到嘲笑。随着这种模式在20世纪70年代和80年代传播，经济学家嘲笑它不过是一种廉价的增长策略，加盟商筹集资金开设新店。批评者声称，加盟商不是像埃隆·马斯克或史蒂夫·乔布斯那样的“真正”企业家，而只是被美化了的商店经理，着迷于自己当老板的幻觉。然而，特许经营在美国商业中所占的份额稳步增长：有近85万家加盟店，由25万企业主运营。在美国，每八家至少有一名雇员的企业中就有一家是加盟店——大约是日本和德国等最接近的国际竞争对手的两倍。