「媒库文选」我们越富有却越不快乐

We Keep Getting Richer But Unhappier

我们越富有却越不快乐

ow happy do you feel today？ How worthwhile do you think you are？ How meaningful is your job？ How hopeful do you feel？ How angry？ How does this compare with other people in your community， your city and your country？

These are big questions that a group of economists says governments should ask their citizens to better understand what makes a good life and to feed that into public policies. This is especially important， they say， at a time when we are seeing economic success accompanied by increasingly fractured societies.

The U.S. is one of the richest countries on earth. The economy has been barreling along at a fast clip and unemployment lies near record lows. But these economic good times aren translating into happier lives for a big swath of Americans.

A report released by the World Economic Forum on Wednesday found that， while the U.S. economy is the most competitive in the world， it has come at the expense of a “weakening social fabric”. Life expectancy is falling， driven in part by increases in “deaths of despair” ― people dying from suicide and substance abuse. This particularly affects white men without a college education who are falling between the cracks and dropping out of the workforce ― about 15 percent of men ages 25 to 54 are not working.

Its not just an American issue， either. Basically， as countries get richer， many of the people living in them seem to be getting unhappier.

Its a phenomenon that Carol Graham， economics professor and senior fellow at the Brookings Institution，calls the “progress paradox，” where unprecedented economic growth and improvements in areas like health and literacy coexist with the bad stuff: climate change，pockets of persistent poverty， increased income inequality and unhappiness.

In an article published on Thursday in the journal Science，Graham， along with co-authors Kate Laffan of the London School of Economics and Sergio Pinto of the University of Maryland， say to overcome this paradox its vital to measure peoples happiness and well-being.

“We need to rethink how we think about success in society more generally， so its not just about peoples economic activity，” Laffan says， “but things like social connectedness that really matter about how people feel about their lives， that don show up in GDP or any other economic measure.”

This idea for including well-being and happiness in economic evaluations has been bubbling away for a few decades and its been steadily gaining traction.

Some places are already trying to slot happiness factors into policymaking. Bhutan is the most famous example. The kingdom of nearly 800，000 people， nestled in the Eastern Himalayas， created a Gross National Happiness Index in 1998. Every five years， a survey is taken of households across the country to track traditional indicators like living standards and health， along with nontraditional indicators like psychological well-being， time use， ecological diversity and connection to the community.

There are challenges to using well-being metrics. Happiness and well-being can be slippery things for us to define. Women in very deprived circumstances， for example，will sometimes say they are happier than they are because they have low expectations or have learned to live with their circumstances， says Graham.

But， she says， there are ways of questioning to tease out these problems and she dismisses broad criticisms that well-being data is unreliable or subjective.

“There is an amazing consistency in the patterns in terms of the way people answer，” she says. “If it was that biased and weird， why would the same factors matter to peoples well-being scores across countries and over time？”

“I don think we have an obvious solution to a lot of this despair，” she adds， “so we need to look not just at the causes of despair but also look at the communities able to thrive in the face of adversity.”

你今天有多快乐？你觉得自己有多大价值？你的工作有多大意义？你怀着多大的希望？你有多愤怒？这一切与你所在社区、城市及国家的其他人相比如何？

一些经济学家表示，这是政府应该询问国民的重要问题，以便更好地理解幸福生活的构成要素，并将其作为公共政策的依据。他们说，在我们目睹经济成功伴随着社会的日益分裂之际，这一点尤为重要。

美国是世界上最富裕的国家之一。经济一直在高速发展，失业率则接近史上最低。但是对于大批美国人来说，经济好时光并未转化为更幸福的生活。

世界经济论坛周三（10月17日）发布的一份报告表明，虽然美国经济在世界上最具竞争力，它却是以“社会结构日益弱化”为代价。预期寿命不断下降，部分原因是“绝望而死”，也就是死于自杀和物质滥用的人数增加。这尤其影响到没有接受过大学教育的白人男性，他们正落入夹缝并掉出职场大军——年龄在25到54岁的男性当中约15%的人没有工作。

这也并非只是美国的问题。从根本上讲，随着国家越来越富裕，生活在其中的许多人似乎在变得越来越不快乐。

经济学教授兼布鲁金斯学会高级研究员卡萝尔·格雷厄姆把这种现象称为“进步悖论”，即前所未有的经济增长及健康水平和文化素养等方面的提高与一些糟糕的情况并存：气候变化、一些地区长期贫困、贫富不均加剧以及人们感受到不快乐。

在《科学》杂志周四发表的论文中，格雷厄姆与另两位作者——伦敦政治经济学院的凯特·拉芬及马里兰大学的塞尔希奥·平托说，要克服这一悖论，对人们的快乐与福祉加以衡量至关重要。

拉芬说：“我们需要反思如何从更广泛的意义上思考社会上的成功，这样它就不只与人们的经济活动有关，还涉及像社会关联性这种真正关系到人们对自身生活的感受但并未体现在国内生产总值（GDP）或其他任何经济衡量指标中的东西。”

在经济评估中包含福祉与快乐的想法提了几十年，正获得越来越多的支持。

有些地方已经在尝试将快乐因素纳入决策。不丹是最著名的例子。这个人口接近80万、坐落于喜马拉雅山脉东段的王国在1998年创造了国民幸福指数。该国每五年对全国各地的家庭进行一次调查，以追踪像生活水平和健康状况这样的传统指标，此外还有像心理健康、时间利用情况、生态多样性以及与社区的关系这样的非传统指标。

把福祉作为衡量标准面临着挑战。快乐与福祉虚无缥缈，可能是我们难以界定的东西。格雷厄姆举例说，生活在极度贫困环境中的女性有时会说自己比实际情况要快乐，因为她们的期望值低，或者因为她们已经学会忍受自己所处的环境。

不过她说，通过一些问话方式可以理清这些问题；而且她认为关于福祉数据不可靠或带有主观色彩的广泛批评是没有道理的。

她说：“人们回答问题的方式惊人地一致。如果它真的那么片面离奇，为什么同样的因素对各个国家人们的福祉得分都有影响且历来如此？”

她还说：“我认为我们对许多这样的绝望情绪并没有显而易见的解决办法。因此我们不仅要探究造成绝望的原因，还要探索能在逆境中朝气蓬勃的社区。”（李凤芹译自美国赫芬顿邮报网站10月19日文章）