America's businesses are getting older and fatter, while many new businesses are dying in infancy.

    A study last month by the Brookings Institution found that the proportion of older firms has grown steadily over several decades, while the survival rate of new companies has fallen. In addition, young people are starting companies at a sharply lower rate than in the past.

    A new report from the National Association of Manufacturers shows a major cause: The cost of obeying government regulations has risen to more than $2 trillion (12.26 trillion yuan) annually, or 12 percent of the GDP, and this cost falls disproportionately on smaller, newer businesses.

    It's risky, difficult and expensive to start a business, and getting more so. Governments are imposing various new rules on a seemingly daily basis: health insurance, minimum wage increases and, most recently in California, compulsory paid sick days for even hourly employees. These regulations shift huge social welfare costs directly onto often-struggling small businesses, while being proportionally much less costly for larger companies.

    This is partly an unintended issue of resources—established companies can cope with new costs more easily—but it's also deliberate. For instance, big insurance companies got a seat at the table to help write Obamacare, but less politically powerful firms—like medical device manufacturers—got squeezed.

    Mature, successful corporations can employ ex-lawmakers with connections, distribute campaign contributions and even write regulations for themselves. They are also more likely to want to protect steady revenue streams than revolutionize their industry.

    Major companies that have been so ill-managed they would otherwise collapse—airlines, car companies and banks—stagger（蹒跚）on because politicians ride to the rescue with bags of taxpayer money.

    The genius of our unique system of government is the determination to protect and defend the rights of the individual over the rights of the nation. As such, the rise of a well-connected oligarchy（寡头政治）that protects big business at the expense of small business, and the established over the new, is opposite to American ideals.

    Income inequality—which is directly caused by faulty government policy—is being promoted as the reason to impose more of that bad policy. But let's be perfectly clear, we do not have a free market but one where government picks winners and losers through regulations and financial aids.

    Politics is, and always has been, about balancing competing interests seeking to benefit themselves, and that's as it should be, but the force of government should never be used to reduce competition, kill innovation or support and extend artificial monopolies（垄断）by harming the consumer, the taxpayer and the economy. Policy must breed our new and small businesses or see the as-yet undreamed of innovations that could be our bright future die in infancy.

    Today's Flight Time Table

（Departure＝leave）

    Turning on the TV, a wonderful scene comes to your eyes — a group of men, tall, strong and handsome, and women, young, beautiful and attractive, too. Together they eat in the finest restaurants, traveling everywhere around the world by luxurious planes and pleasure ships. They are models.

    Do you envy them？What sort of life are models leading？Is it a wonderful life for a young lady or a young man?

    A few models are well-known actors or actresses who can make a lot of money only by showing themselves off in commercials. But the majority of them are just curious to see what it is like. They^'d like to be models just because they are attracted by what they imagine — models earn a lot of money and lead a glorious life. This is true for those who are very successful. However, most models find it difficult to get work. Very few can earn enough to live on, and for all models their expenses are high. Their agents claim about 20% of the earnings, and no model will get very far without a clever agent. Besides, they have to buy good clothing. They also have to pay to travel to interviews and reach the places where the work is to be done.

    Interviews for a model job are known as cattle markets in the modeling world, and not without a good reason. A top model can choose his or her work, demand and receive high fees and has his or her expenses paid. But for most models, the situation is quite different. An agent or employer inspects each model much as a farmer inspects cattle at a market. Intelligence, qualifications and personal characteristics count for little against good looks and tight figures. For all except the very few lucky ones, the life of a model is a continual search for work, trying to sell him or her in the face of fierce competition and, sometimes, not particularly moral standards on the part of some employers.

    Immigration officials at the airport look suspiciously at a girl whose passport shows her occupation as “Model”, and these are men and women of considerable experience of the world. It comes no surprise to find that some models prefer to put “Secretary” or “Businessman” as their jobs in their passports.

    Some people will do just about anything to save money. And I am one of them. Take my family's last vacation. It was my six-year-old son's winter break from school, and we were heading home from Fort Lauderdale after a week long trip. The flight was overbooked, and Delta, the airline, offered us $400 per person in credits to give up our seats and leave the next day. I had meetings in New York. So I had to get back. But that didn't mean my husband and my son couldn't stay. I took my nine-month-old and took off for home.

    The next day, my husband and son were offered more credits to take an even later flight. Yes, I encouraged—okay, ordered—them to wait at the airport, to “earn” more Delta Dollars. Our total take: $1,600. Not bad, huh?

    Now some people may think I'm a bad mother and not such a great wife either. But as a big-time bargain hunter, I know the value of a dollar. And these days, a good deal is something few of us can afford to pass up.

    I've made a living looking for the best deals and exposing (揭露) the worst tricks. I have been the consumer reporter of NBC's Today show for over a decade. I have written a couple of books including one titled Tricks of the Trade: A Consumer Survival Guide. And I really do what I believe in.

    I tell you this because there is no shame in getting your money's worth, I'm also tightfisted when it comes to shoes, clothes for my children, and expensive restaurants. But I wouldn't hesitate to spend on a good haircut. It keeps its shape longer, and it's the first thing people notice. And I will also spend on a classic piece of furniture. Quality lasts.

Not long after Tony Berlin began working at the state driver's license facility in Niles in 1985, he noticed that some truck drivers who should have failed their exams mysteriously passed them. For six years, starting in 1992, he collected evidence to show why: He believed truck drivers were bribing state workers to get licenses. In another turn of the screw, the workers were using those bribes to buy tickets to the then secretary of state George Ryan's fundraisers, including for his successful bid for governor. Berlin tried to expose the corruption (腐败)-he went to the FBI and the upper ranks of the secretary of state's office - but was repeatedly met with indifference. Then he began to suspect that the truck driver in a 1994 accident that killed six children, all from the same family, got his license through the scheme. In a moment that changed everything, Berlin reached out to the Reverend Scott Willis, the children's father.

It was his call to Willis that connected the crash to what would become known as the licenses — for — bribes scandal (丑闻), "Berlin's the one who started it says the Willises' lawyer. A few months after that phone call, the U.S. attorney's office initiated Operation Safe Road, an ongoing federal investigation that by the end of November had disclosed 34 offenses.

The investigation ultimately netted 75 offenses, including that of Dean Bauer, Ryan's inspector general. He pleaded guilty in 2001 to obstructing (妨碍)justice and was sentenced to 12 months in. prison. Bui the biggest catch was Ryan himself, who was sentenced in 2006 to six and a half years tor fraud and blackmailing. As for Berlin, he continued to work a stale license facilities, in Streator and Pontiac, choosing to stay out of the public eye.

It was a fine day. Jeffrey Del Monte was driving With his friend late Friday afternoon along the beach near Ramp 49 in Friso when they heard the screams of children. They surveyed the water trying to locate the screams and, two young girls were spotted apparently struggling while being swept out in a rip current(激流).

Del Monte then swam out into the ocean and helped one of the girls who were caught in the rip current, passing her to his friend for the lengthy swim back to shore. He then went back to search for the second girl and found her in great pain before he swam back to shore, bringing the child to the beach from nearly 100 yards out.

After both girls were safe on the beach, Del Monte and his friend attended to them until Dare County Emergency Medical Services and a Cape Hatteras National Seashore Ranger arrived on the scene. The children's parents also arrived and expressed their thanks to Del Monte and his friend.

"Jeffrey Del Monte's heroic, selfless and quick actions were key to saving these two girls from a very dangerous situation," National Parks of Eastern North Carolina Superintendent David Hallac said in a statement. "His courage and expertise allowed him to perform this successful ocean rescue."

Park officials said the incident was a reminder of how quickly ocean conditions could change, even on what appeared to be a perfect clay.

"A perfect clay on the beach doesn't always mean that it's a perfect day in the ocean, so it is important that all visitors check the beach forecast for danger and rip currents before heading to the beach and always use something that floats when in the water. If individuals do find themselves caught in rip currents, please don't swim against the currents, instead swimming out of the currents and then to shore," David Hallac said.