Entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley want to change the world. The ones profiled in “The Everywhere Millionaire”, a forthcoming book by Owen Zidar and Eric Zwick, are different. They find something boring, often catatonically so(极度呆滞地), then pursue it with star-spangled doggedness(星条旗般的执着) until they become rich. A typical character sells gutters(檐槽) in Texas. Another distributes toilet paper in New Jersey. One woman in California began baking quiches(法式乳蛋饼) for her own parties and simply did not stop. Two decades later she was making more than a million quiches a day and owned a yacht(游艇).
硅谷的企业家想要改变世界。《无处不在的百万富翁》（一本由欧文·齐达尔和埃里克·兹维克合著的即将出版的书）中描绘的人物则不同。他们寻找一些枯燥乏味、常常令人近乎麻木的事情，然后以星条旗般坚定的执着追求它，直到变得富有。一个典型角色在德克萨斯州卖排水槽。另一个在新泽西州分销厕纸。加利福尼亚州的一位女士开始为自己的派对烤制乳蛋饼，然后一发不可收拾。二十年后，她每天制作超过一百万个乳蛋饼，并拥有一艘游艇。
The authors are economists in the vein of(与……风格相似) their subjects. Messrs Zidar and Zwick, of Princeton and Chicago universities respectively, spend their days toiling in the thicket of America’s tax data. Much of their work involves untangling the effect of a 1986 law that cut the top rate of individual tax to below the corporate one. As changes to the tax code are wont to do, this brought about a vast reorganisation of American business.(正如税法修改惯常会发生的那样，这引发了美国商业的大规模重组。) Private corporations were reconstituted as partnerships, sole-proprietorships and other structures which “pass through” profits directly to their owners, who then pay income tax.
这两位作者与其研究对象风格相似。齐达尔和兹维克先生分别来自普林斯顿大学和芝加哥大学，终日在美国税收数据这片丛林中辛勤耕耘。他们的工作大部分是梳理1986年一项法律的影响，该法律将个人所得税最高税率降至公司税率以下。正如税法修改惯常会发生的那样，这引发了美国商业的大规模重组。私人公司被重组为合伙企业、独资企业和其他将利润直接“穿透”给所有者、由所有者缴纳所得税的企业结构。
These firms receive far less attention than they ought to. Journalists, academics and investors spend most of their time thinking about public companies. Populists direct their anger at a handful of tech executives, because they are the richest and the strangest. Yet for each member of the Forbes 400 list of America’s wealthiest people, the authors find there are more than 4,000 owners of private businesses who are worth at least $10m apiece. The top private business owners are better off than public-company chief executives. A number of the characters in the book are millionaires in the same way Warren Buffett, the paragon of Main Street capitalism, is a millionaire—which is to say they are actually billionaires.(书中不少人物是百万富翁，其方式与沃伦·巴菲特——主街资本主义的典范——是百万富翁如出一辙，也就是说，他们实际上都是亿万富翁。)
这些公司受到的关注远不及它们应有的程度。记者、学者和投资者大部分时间都在思考上市公司。民粹主义者将怒火对准少数科技高管，因为他们是最富有也是最奇怪的。然而，作者发现，对于福布斯美国富豪400强名单上的每一位富豪，就有超过4000名私人企业主每人至少价值1000万美元。顶尖的私人企业主比上市公司的首席执行官更为富有。书中不少人物是百万富翁，其方式与沃伦·巴菲特——主街资本主义的典范——是百万富翁如出一辙，也就是说，他们实际上都是亿万富翁。
A billion dollars isn’t cool. You know what’s cool?
十亿美元并不酷。你知道什么才酷吗？