经济学人01:夏令营 顽皮鬼的天地

 　　Business.

　　商业。
　　Summer camps
　　夏令营
　　Camps for scamps
　　顽皮鬼的天地
　　An American tradition is spreading
　　一项美国传统正在传播蔓延
　　SOME have their faces painted as Spider-Man; others as sparkly pink butterflies. Children at Super Camps arrive each weekday morning bright-eyed and lunchbox-laden, ready for an eventful day. Besides wall-climbing (at which, no doubt, the Spider-Men excel), they are made to sing, dance, cook, swim, shoot arrows and create "graffiti art".
　　一些人把他们的脸涂成蜘蛛侠,其他则描画成耀眼的粉红蝴蝶。每个工作日的早晨，孩子们都满载热情并带上便当来到超级营地准备丰富多彩的一天。除了攀岩走壁（这毫无疑问是蜘蛛侠最擅长的），还有人带他们唱歌，跳舞，烹饪，游泳，射箭以及创建"涂鸦艺术"。
　　The poet William Blake likened kids in school to birds in cages. (Apparently he thought caging them was a bad thing.) During the summer holidays, the little horrors are released and their harried 1 parents must find ways to keep them out of trouble. Americans have long resorted to summer camps. A few weeks in the wilderness 2 teaches youngsters self-reliance and new swear words.
　　诗人威廉?布莱克把学校里的孩子比作笼子里的小鸟。（很明显，他认为将它们关在笼子里是一件糟糕的事情。）暑假期间,调皮蛋们被释放,被烦扰的家长们必须找到办法使他们不再捣蛋。美国人一直采取的是送进夏令营。在野外待几个星期，孩子们学会自立，当然也会学到新的脏话。
　　The idea is spreading. In Britain, where childcare is costly-the average family with two earners spends 27% of after-tax income on it-day camps are popular. Super Camps, a national operator, charges ￡38 ($60) a day at most. A smaller rival, Camp Energy in Oxfordshire, charges ￡33. One of the founders 4 of Mumsnet, a parenting website, calls such fees "eye-wateringly expensive". Yet to many, they are a bargain. The minimum hourly wage for childminders is ￡6.08 and they will not teach you how to make fire with flints.
　　这个主意正在传播。在英国，由于儿童托管的昂贵费用占到拥有两个收入者的普通家庭税后的27% ，因此日间夏令营很受欢迎。国营的超级营地最多一天收费38英镑（合60美元）。一个规模较小的竞争对手—牛津郡的Camp Energy收费33英镑。一个育儿网站Mumsnet网的创始人之一称这种费用"十分昂贵"。 然而对许多人来说,他们很便宜。保育员每小时最低工资是6.08欧元，同时他们也不会告诉你如何用燧石生火。
　　By one estimate, 250,000 British children attend summer camps each year. Their purpose, says Camp Energy's founder 3, Barry Grinham, is "to ease the pain of parenting". Their main competitor, says Justine Longford of Super Camps, is free child care from the extended family. Mr Grinham notes that many parents book at the last minute, after relatives cancel on them.
　　据估计，每年有25万的英国孩子参加了夏令营。Camp Energy的创始人巴里Grinham说, 他们的目的是"为了缓解的父母苦恼"。而超级阵营的杰斯丁朗福德说:夏令营的主要竞争对手,是大家族中其他亲属对孩子的免费照顾.Grinham指出，许多父母会在他们的亲戚没有时间照顾他们的小孩的时候才下的订单。
　　American camps operate on a grander scale. The American Camp Association estimates that over 10m children, including Sasha and Malia Obama, will attend one this summer. Specialist camps abound 5: for robotics fans, diabetes-sufferers, children whose parents are in the army or in prison, and so on. Lighter 6 regulations make American camps more fun: safety rules bar British brats 7 from enjoying the risky 8 games that delight their American peers.
　　美国夏令营的规模更大。美国宿营协会估计，今年夏天包括玛丽亚和萨莎奥巴马在内的有超过一千万的孩子将参加其中的一个。具有针对性培养计划的夏令营比比皆是:针对机器人爱好者的, 针对糖尿病患者的, 针对孩子的父母都在军队或监禁的, 诸如此类。放松的管制使美国阵营更有趣：安全条例禁止英国顽童享受那些带给美国同龄人喜悦的冒险游戏
　　Some camps are marketing 9 opportunities. US Sports Camps (USSC), for example, is sponsored by Nike, a sporting-goods firm. More than 55,000 kids will attend one of its 450 camps this summer; revenues are nearly $30m a year, says Steve Pence, the president. He reports steady growth in the past four years. "The last thing parents will cut is something for their child," he explains.
　　一些营地是市场营销的机会。例如，美国体育训练营是由体育用品公司耐克赞助的。其总裁史蒂夫称，这个夏天将有超过55000名孩子参加它450个营地中的一个，这一年的收入将近3千万美元。他说，在过去的四年这都在平稳增长。他解释道："父母再怎么省也不会亏待孩子"。
　　USSC is trying to break into China. It has opened sports camps in Beijing and Shanghai, also sponsored by Nike. However, Mr Pence describes the Chinese market as "challenging". Urban Chinese couples typically have one child, whose four grandparents have no other grandchildren. Finding babysitters is easier in Beijing than in Baltimore or Balham.
　　美国体育训练营试图打入中国市场。同样由耐克赞助，它已经在北京和上海建起了运动营地。然而，Pence认为中国市场是一次"挑战"。 中国城市夫妇通常有一个孩子，他们的四个祖父母没有其他外孙。相比巴尔的摩或者是巴勒姆，在北京给孩子找个保姆更加容易。