经济学人470:收入与幸福感 幸福的家庭总是相似的

 　　Happiness and Income

　　收入与幸福感

　　Everything that rises must converge¹

　　幸福的家庭总是相似的

　　Emerging markets are catching² up with the West in the happiness stakes

　　新兴国家的幸福指数将要赶上西方

　　POETS, songwriters and left-wing politicians hate the idea, but for decades opinion-poll evidence has been clear: money buys happiness and the richer you are, the more likely you are to express satisfaction with your life. Until now. A survey of 43 countries published on October 30th by the Pew Research Centre of Washington, DC, shows that people in emerging markets are within a whisker of expressing the same level of satisfaction as people in rich countries. It is the biggest qualification to the standard view of happiness and income seen so far.

　　诗人，作词家，左翼政治家总是反驳这样一个观点：钱可以买到幸福，一个人越有钱，他对生活的满意感就可能越高。但是十年来民意调查却清楚证明了这一点。不过，位于华盛顿特区的皮尤研究中心调查了43个国家后，发现发展中国家的人对生活满意度与富有国家的人们生活满意度相差无几。这是迄今为止出现的最能证明人越有钱越幸福这个观点的证据。

　　The Pew poll asks respondents to measure, on a scale from zero to ten, how good their lives are. (Those who say between seven and ten are counted as happy.) In 2007, 57% of respondents in rich countries put themselves in the top four tiers; in emerging markets the share was 33%; in poor countries only 16%—a classic expression of the standard view.

　　皮尤让被调查者用0到10之间数字表示对生活的满意度。（如果给出数字在7和10之间，认为该调查人幸福。）2007年的调查显示富有国家57%的调查者认为自己是幸福的人；发展中国家有33%认为自己幸福；在贫困国家幸福的人只有16%—这是证明金钱和幸福感相关的典型例子。

　　收入与幸福感.jpg

　　But in 2014, 54% of rich-country respondents counted themselves as happy, whereas in emerging markets the percentage jumped to 51%. This was happening just at a time when emerging markets' chances of converging³ economically with the West seemed to be receding⁴.

　　2014年中富有国家幸福的人有54%，然而发展中国家的百分比跃到了51%。此时发展中国家抓住机会发展经济正在赶上经济似乎萎靡的西方国家，两个时间点不谋而合。

　　Rich countries did not experience steep declines in happiness. The decreases in America and Britain were tiny (a single percentage point), while the share of happy Germans rose 13 points. A large drop in formerly⁵ joyful⁶ Spain ensured a modest overall decline for the rich. But the convergence happened thanks to huge improvements in countries such as Indonesia (+35) and Pakistan (+22). In 12 of the 24 emerging markets, half or more people rate their life satisfaction in the top tiers of the ladder.

　　富有国家在幸福感上并没有大幅下降。美国和英国只是下降了一个百分点，德国人民的幸福感却上升了13个百分点。但是之前幸福的西班牙人此次调查指数大幅下降导致发达国家幸福指数总体稍微有所下降。幸福感大幅提高的几个国家是此次汇合发生的原因，比如印度尼西亚（+35），巴基斯坦（+22）。24个发展中国家里12个国家，半数、或半数以上的人感觉对自己生活很满意。

　　This is not to say the link between income and satisfaction has been snapped. Poor countries still lag behind: only a quarter of the people there are in the happy tiers—half the level of the other two groups. There is also a clear link between happiness and income growth (as opposed to income levels). China's GDP rose at an annual average rate of 10% in 2007-14 and its happiness level rose 26 points.

　　这并不是证明金钱和生活满意度之间的关联断了。贫困国家指数依旧垫底：只有四分之一的人认为自己幸福—是发展中国家和发达国家的一半。该数据清晰显示了工资增长率和幸福感之间的联系(而不是收入水平）。中国国内生产总值从2007到2014年每年以平均10%的速度增长，其人民幸福度提高了26个百分点。

　　Within countries, richer people express more satisfaction than their poorer neighbours. The study divided respondents into categories with higher and lower incomes and fewer and more household goods. In every country in every group, richer folk with more goods expressed higher levels of happiness. So at a personal (as opposed to national) level, money does buy happiness. And if you ask people about different aspects of their lives—health, family life, religion, standard of living—it turns out that satisfaction with living standards still has the biggest influence on happiness.

　　在同一个国家里，富人比穷人更幸福。这项调查把调查者分成了高收入群体和低收入群体，家里日用品多的和少的群体。在每个国家里的每个群体，有很多如用品较为富有的居民反映出的幸福度更高。如果问到生活中一些其它方面如健康，家庭生活，信仰，生活水平对幸福感的影响，结果显示生活水平是影响幸福感最大方面。

　　But the secret of happiness has been scattered⁷ around. Women tend to be happier than men. Married people are happier than unmarried ones. Latin Americans are more satisfied than people in other emerging markets. Asians are the most optimistic; Middle Easterners the least. Income still matters. But it has been dethroned.

　　但是幸福的秘密还存在很多地方。女人为什么会比男人幸福？已婚者为什么比未婚者幸福？拉丁美洲人为什么比别的发展中国家幸福？亚洲人为什么如此乐观？中东人为什么不幸福？收入是一方面，但已经不是唯一方面。

1 converge   

vi.会合；聚集，集中；(思想、观点等)趋近

参考例句：

• The results converge towards this truth.其结果趋近于这个真理。
• Parallel lines converge at infinity.平行线永不相交。

2 catching   

adj.易传染的，有魅力的，迷人的，接住

参考例句：

• There are those who think eczema is catching.有人就是认为湿疹会传染。
• Enthusiasm is very catching.热情非常富有感染力。

3 converging   

adj.收敛[缩]的，会聚的，趋同的v.（线条、运动的物体等）会于一点( converge的现在分词 )；（趋于）相似或相同；人或车辆汇集；聚集

参考例句：

• Plants had gradually evolved along diverging and converging pathways. 植物是沿着趋异和趋同两种途径逐渐演化的。 来自辞典例句
• This very slowly converging series was known to Leibniz in 1674. 这个收敛很慢的级数是莱布尼茨在1674年得到的。 来自辞典例句

4 receding   

v.逐渐远离( recede的现在分词 )；向后倾斜；自原处后退或避开别人的注视；尤指问题

参考例句：

• Desperately he struck out after the receding lights of the yacht. 游艇的灯光渐去渐远，他拼命划水追赶。 来自辞典例句
• Sounds produced by vehicles receding from us seem lower-pitched than usual. 渐渐远离我们的运载工具发出的声似乎比平常的音调低。 来自辞典例句

5 formerly   

adv.从前，以前

参考例句：

• We now enjoy these comforts of which formerly we had only heard.我们现在享受到了过去只是听说过的那些舒适条件。
• This boat was formerly used on the rivers of China.这船从前航行在中国内河里。

6 joyful   

adj.欢乐的，令人欢欣的

参考例句：

• She was joyful of her good result of the scientific experiments.她为自己的科学实验取得好成果而高兴。
• They were singing and dancing to celebrate this joyful occasion.他们唱着、跳着庆祝这令人欢乐的时刻。

7 scattered   

adj.分散的，稀疏的；散步的；疏疏落落的

参考例句：

• Gathering up his scattered papers,he pushed them into his case.他把散乱的文件收拾起来，塞进文件夹里。