外刊高翻第34课
我们还能花着快消的钱，过着奢侈品的生活吗？
Farewell, Millennial Lifestyle Subsidy
第一段
A few years ago, while on a work trip in Los Angeles, I hailed an Uber for a crosstown ride during rush hour. I knew it would be a long trip, and I steeled myself to fork over $60 or $70. Instead, the app spit out a price that made my jaw drop: $16.
几年前，在洛杉矶出差时，我在交通高峰时间叫了一辆优步(Uber)横穿市区。我知道这这段路会很长，于是做好了交出60或70美元的准备。结果，这款应用给出了一个让我瞠目结舌的价格：16美元。
Experiences like these were common during the golden era of the Millennial Lifestyle Subsidy, which is what I like to call the period from roughly 2012 through early 2020, when many of the daily activities of big-city 20- and 30-somethings were being quietly underwritten by Silicon Valley venture capitalists.
在“千禧一代生活方式补贴”(Millennial Lifestyle Subsidy)的黄金时代，这样的经历很常见。我喜欢这么称呼这个大约从2012年到2020年初的时期，当时，大城市二三十岁年轻人的许多日常活动都都被硅谷的风险资本家暗中包揽。
For years, these subsidies allowed us to live Balenciaga lifestyles on Banana Republic budgets. Collectively, we took millions of cheap Uber and Lyft rides, shuttling ourselves around like bourgeois royalty while splitting the bill with those companies’ investors. We plunged MoviePass into bankruptcy by taking advantage of its $9.95-a-month, all-you-can-watch movie ticket deal, and took so many subsidized spin classes that ClassPass was forced to cancel its $99-a-month unlimited plan. We filled graveyards with the carcasses of food delivery start-ups — Maple, Sprig, SpoonRocket, Munchery — just by accepting their offers of underpriced gourmet meals.
多年来，这些补贴让我们可以花着香蕉共和国(Banana Republic)的预算，过着巴黎世家(Balenciaga)的生活。我们集体乘坐了成百上千万次廉价的优步和Lyft，像小资贵族一样穿梭于各个地方，同时与这些公司的投资者们分摊账单。我们利用MoviePass的9.95美元包月的电影票优惠，让该公司陷入破产。我们参加了太多有补贴的动感单车课程，ClassPass被迫取消了99美元的无限包月计划。我们的墓地里满是送餐初创公司的尸体——Maple、Sprig、SpoonRocket、Munchery——只因为我们接受了他们提供的低价美食。MoviePass允许订阅者以每月10美元的价格每天一次在影院观看电影，导致公司不堪重负。
hail from 来自哪里= be from=come from
steel oneself to /for/against sth. 为（不好的事情）做好准备; 应对不好的事情=brace for
fork over 付出、支付、交付
make my jaw drop 惊掉了下巴
common 常见的，司空见惯的= be the norm i.e. sth. has become the norm
millennial 千禧的
subsidy 补贴
20-and 30-something 2、30岁的 =in 20s/in 30s
underwritten 承担费用=cover your cost/be founded by/be financed by underwriter 承销商、承销机构
shuttle 穿梭 shuttle around 到处穿行，出行=get around
e. Subway is the most convenient way to get around in BJ.
在北京出行最好的方式就是地铁。
get around sth. 绕过去（下有对策） i.e. get around the regulation 绕过规则
plunge into 陷入、卷入
spin class 动感单车课
cancel 取消 cancel culture 抵制文化
be filled with sth. 充满
e. sth. fill sb.with sth. That failure fills me with disappointment.
那次失败让我感到非常失望。
carcasses 尸体
underpriced 定价过低的 overpriced 定价过高的
e. undercut each other 打价格战
8、gourmet meals 美味佳肴
第二段
These companies’ investors didn’t set out to bankroll our decadence. They were just trying to get traction for their start-ups, all of which needed to attract customers quickly to establish a dominant market position, elbow out competitors and justify their soaring valuations. So they flooded these companies with cash, which often got passed on to users in the form of artificially low prices and generous incentives.
这些公司的投资者并不是打算为我们的颓废提供资金。他们只是想令自己的初创企业获得一些影响力，所有这些公司都需要迅速吸引客户，以确立市场优势地位，排挤竞争对手，并证明自己不断飙升的估值是合理的。因此，他们向这些公司注入大量现金，而这些现金往往以人为压低价格和慷慨的奖励形式传递给用户。
Now, users are noticing that for the first time — whether because of disappearing subsidies or merely an end-of-pandemic demand surge — their luxury habits actually carry luxury price tags.
如今，用户们终于注意到他们的奢侈习惯其实也带着奢侈品的价签——这可能是因为补贴在消失，也可能只是大流行尾声的一次需求大涨。
I’ll confess that I gleefully took part in this subsidized economy for years. (My colleague Kara Swisher memorably called it “assisted living for millennials.”) I got my laundry delivered by Washio, my house cleaned by Homejoy and my car valet-parked by Luxe — all start-ups that promised cheap, revolutionary on-demand services but shut down after failing to turn a profit. I even bought a used car through a venture-backed start-up called Beepi, which offered white-glove service and mysteriously low prices, and which delivered the car to me wrapped in a giant bow, like you see in TV commercials. (Unsurprisingly, Beepi shut down in 2017, after burning through $150 million in venture capital.)
我得承认，这些年来我兴高采烈地参与了这种补贴经济。（我的同事卡拉·斯威舍对此有个难忘的表述，叫作“千禧一代辅助生活”。）Washio会把我的衣服洗干净送上门，Homejoy打扫我的房间，Luxe会帮我把车停好——这些初创公司都承诺提供廉价的、革命性的按需服务，然后在无法盈利后关张。我甚至通过一个拿到风投的初创公司Beepi买了一辆二手车，提供全程白手套服务和低得莫名其妙的价格，他们会把车送到你家门口，车上贴着一朵大礼花，跟电视广告里一样。（不出意外地，Beepi于2017年倒闭，烧了1.5亿美元风投。）
These subsidies don’t always end badly for investors. Some venture-backed companies, like Uber and DoorDash, have been able to grit it out until their I.P.O.s, making good on their promise that investors would eventually see a return on their money. Other companies have been acquired or been able to successfully raise their prices without scaring customers away.
这些补贴对投资者来说并不总是以失败告终。一些风投支持的公司，如优步和DoorDash，已经能够坚持到首次公开募股，兑现他们的承诺，即投资者最终会看到他们的资金回报。其他公司则被收购或能够成功提高价格而没有吓跑用户。
bankroll our decadence 为堕落的生活买单
traction 牵引，拉力 gain traction 获得影响力，获得势头，造势= gain momentum=gain influence=gain popularity（获得流行）= gain currency
dominant market position 市场主导地位
be well-positioned to do sth. 有能力/有条件/有资格做某事
i.e. I’am well-positioned to secure that job. 我有能力得到那份工作。
elbow out 排挤
valuation 公司估值 market capitalization 公司市值= market cap.
flood somewhere with sth. 某地充斥着....
i.e. The Chinese market flooded with imports. 中国市场充斥着进口商品。
artificially low price 人为压低价格
incentive 激励措施 incentivize sb. to do sth. 激励某人做某事
Now, users are noticing that for the first time — whether because of disappearing subsidies or merely an end-of-pandemic demand surge — their luxury habits actually carry luxury price tags.
1、their luxury habits actually carry luxury price tags.
为奢侈的习惯付出奢侈的代价
gleefully 兴高采烈地
subsidized economy 补贴经济
valet 男仆、佣人、旅馆帮你服务的人
on-demand service 按需服务
turn a profit 盈利 profit making enterprise 盈利企业 loss making enterprise 亏损企业
venture-backed 有风投支持的公司
white-glove service 白手套服务，高端服务
burn through 烧钱 burn through +钱+in....
grit it out 咬牙坚持到最后，度过难关= tough it out
making good on their promise 兑现承诺= deliver on one’s promise
第三段
As an urban millennial who enjoys a good bargain, I could — and frequently do — lament the disappearance of these subsidies. And I enjoy hearing about people who discovered even better deals than I did. (Ranjan Roy’s essay “DoorDash and Pizza Arbitrage,” about the time he realized that DoorDash was selling pizzas from his friend’s restaurant for $16 while paying the restaurant $24 per pizza, and proceeded to order dozens of pizzas from the restaurant while pocketing the $8 difference, stands as a classic of the genre.)
作为一个喜欢便宜货的城市千禧一代，我可以——而且经常会——为这些补贴的消失感到可惜。我乐于听说有人发现比我找到的还要好的优惠。（兰詹·罗伊[Ranjan Roy]的文章《DoorDash与披萨店套利》[DoorDash and Pizza Arbitrage]写道，DoorDash以16美元的价格出售他朋友的餐厅的披萨，同时付给该餐厅24美元，当他意识到这件事的时候，他开始在该餐厅下单数十个披萨，同时将8美元的差价收入囊中，是这类事情中的一个经典。）
But it’s hard to fault these investors for wanting their companies to turn a profit. And, at a broader level, it’s probably good to find more efficient uses for capital than giving discounts to affluent urbanites.
但这些投资者也没什错，他们只是希望他们的公司盈利。而且，在更广泛的层面上，与向富裕的城市居民提供折扣相比，找到更有效的利用资本的方法可能更好。
Profits are good for investors, of course. And while it’s painful to pay subsidy-free prices for our extravagances, there’s also a certain justice to it. Hiring a private driver to shuttle you across Los Angeles during rush hour should cost more than $16, if everyone in that transaction is being fairly compensated. Getting someone to clean your house, do your laundry or deliver your dinner should be a luxury, if there’s no exploitation involved. The fact that some high-end services are no longer easily affordable by the merely semi-affluent may seem like a worrying development, but maybe it’s a sign of progress.
利润对投资者来说当然是好事。虽然为我们的奢侈行为支付无补贴的价格很痛苦，但也有一定的合理性。在高峰时间请专车司机接送你穿越洛杉矶，如果该交易中的每个人都得到了公平的补偿，那么费用就应该不止于16美元。请人打扫房子、洗衣服或送晚餐应是一种奢侈，假如这其中没有剥削。不算富有的人不再能够轻松享受一些高端服务，这样的变化似乎令人担忧，但这也许是进步的标志。
1，pocket the $8 difference差价 cover the difference 承担差价
2，Stand as, stand to gain, stand to lose， 巧妙的词（is,be）
3，Subsidy-free无补贴的 pollution-free, user-friendly 构词
4，There’s more to it. 话里有话（还有其他的）
5，Justice=justify
6，A worrying developing 令人担忧的发展形势 反：welcome/welcoming developing 令人鼓舞的=encouraging
