人们总说金钱买不到幸福，但一项新的研究表明幸福也是可以买到的。实际上，一个人拥有的金钱越多，就会越幸福。 这对一部分人来说可能是很明显的道理，但长期以来的研究都告诉我们幸福不仅是金钱的富足。早在上世纪70年代，经济学家理查德?伊斯特林就曾经指出，人们的幸福感并没有随着不断增加的人均收入而提高，这就是后来被人们所熟知的“伊斯特林悖论”（Easterlin Paradox）。这些年来，这个悖论逐渐演变成一种新的观念：金钱确实能买到幸福，只是一旦收入能满足购买衣服和食物之类的必须品时，它对幸福的影响便开始慢慢降低。 这个观念渐渐流行开来，但从来没有得到过严谨的证明。 如今，美国密歇根大学（University of Michigan）的经济学家贾斯廷?沃尔弗斯和贝齐?史蒂文森研究了超过150个国家的数据，数据来源包括世界银行（World Bank）和盖洛普世界民意调查（Gallup World Poll）。这对夫妻档研究发现，无论人们目前是贫穷或富裕，他们都觉得财富越多越幸福。与先前研究相反的是，他们发现并不存在使幸福感不再增加财富的临界值。 不用说，幸福本身只是个相对的概念。那怎样算得上是幸福呢？ 正如《财富》杂志（Fortune）资深编辑丹?普里马克所说的，就连美国的百万富翁们也还是觉得自己不够富裕。那么他们就没有那些只能挣最低工资的穷人开心吗？ 不是的，只是超级富豪们需要更多的财富才能更幸福，沃尔弗斯和史蒂文森在研究报告中写道。这份研究报告将在今年5月份的《美国经济评论》（American Economic Review）杂志上发表。事实上，研究中并没有发现不幸福的百万富翁。幸福这个话题长期以来一直吸引着经济学家的注意力，沃尔弗斯和史蒂文森的分析补充了这个话题的研究成果。 | | | They say money can't buy happiness, but a new study suggests it actually can. In fact, the more money you have, the happier you are. That might sound obvious to some people, but studies have historically shown there's more to happiness than money. In the 1970s, economist Richard Easterlin argued that increasing average income did not raise average well-being, a claim that became known as the Easterlin Paradox. Over the years, the paradox evolved into the notion that money does indeed buy happiness, but that effect fizzles once the income you earn is able to buy your basic needs -- food, shelter, and the like. Somehow that idea carried into popular notion but was never really formally tested. Now University of Michigan economists Justin Wolfers and Betsey Stevenson have examined data for more than 150 countries from sources including the World Bank and the Gallup World Poll. The husband-and-wife team found that the more money people have the happier they are, regardless of whether they're rich or poor. And contrary to earlier studies, there isn't a cutoff point where making more than a certain amount doesn't lead to more happiness. Needless to say, happiness is a relative term. What does it mean to be happy, anyway? Even America's millionaires don't think of themselves as rich, as Fortune's Dan Primack has pointed out. So are they any less happy than poorer folks scraping by earning minimum wage? Not exactly. It just takes more money to make the super-rich happier, Wolfers and Stevenson note in their study, which is to be published in the May 2013 American Economic Review. In fact, the study found zero unhappy millionaires. Their analysis adds to the collection of studies on happiness that have long interested economists |
可以肯定的是，世上有两种幸福：一种是侧重于日常心情的幸福，另一种则是在世上安身立命的广义幸福，普林斯顿大学（Princeton University）经济学家安格斯?迪顿和著名的心理学家丹尼尔?卡纳曼将后者称为“人生评估”。迪顿和卡纳曼在2010年的一项研究中发现，随着收入的提高，人们的日常幸福感相应增加。不过一旦年收入达到7万5千美元，幸福感却不再上升了。当然，这个临界值放在纽约市这样的地方就不那么准确了。但《纽约时报》（New York Times）最近也提出，由于纽约的收入差别很大，中产阶级是个含糊的概念。 尽管如此，迪顿和卡纳曼仍然认为，人们拥有的财富越多，越倾向于觉得生活比他人美好。这和攀比的心态类似：如果我挣得更多，我就能买辆比邻居更好的车。或者是，如果我挣得更多，我就能比巴菲特或其他有钱人捐出更多的善款。 沃尔弗斯和史蒂文森的研究针对的是第二种幸福，这时只要收入增长，满足感就是无穷的。 这种说法很有道理。财富虽然不能买到所有的幸福，但它是提高生活水平的重要途径。根据经济合作与发展组织（Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development，简称：OECD）的统计，美国人的平均年收入是37,708美元，远高于这个组织34个发达成员国人均22,387美元的年收入。 总体来看，美国在OECD更美好生活指数（Better Life Index）中的排名相当高。这个指数根据国民享受的教育和医疗等情况来衡量一国居民的幸福感。虽然美国人总体上是幸福的，但就算金钱确实能买来幸福，仍然有不少美国人不幸福。美国贫富差距相当大：最富有的20%的美国人收入是底层20%人的8倍。 因此，在追寻幸福的路上，要多关注内心的幸福，而不要与他人比较。这个道理听上去显而易见，有时却需要劳动一批经济学家去验证。（财富中文网） 译者：默默 | | | To be sure, there are two kinds of happinesses: The day-to-day kind that focuses on your daily mood vs. what Princeton University economist Angus Deaton and famed psychologist Daniel Kahneman call "life assessment," which means broader satisfaction with your place in the world. In their 2010 study, they found that day-to-day happiness rises as people earn more money, but once they hit $75,000 a year, they don't get any happier. Admittedly that threshold seems arbitrary in places like New York City, where, as The New York Times recently highlighted, middle-class is a vague class, since incomes there vary so widely. Nonetheless, according to Deaton and Kahneman, the more money people have, the more likely they'll feel they have a better life. This taps into the keeping up with the Joneses mindset: If I earn more, I could buy a fancier car than Mr. Jones next door. Or if I earn more, I may be able to donate more of my fortune than Warren Buffett or some other rich person. Wolfers's and Stevenson's study speaks to the latter kind of happiness, where fulfillment is infinite so long as your income rises. This makes a lot of sense. Money, while it can't always buy happiness, is an important means to achieving higher living standards. In the U.S., the average person earns $37,708 a year, according to the Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development. That's more than the average of $22,387 of the OECD's 34-member developed countries. Overall, the U.S. ranks pretty high in the OECD's Better Life Index, which measures the happiness of countries based on, among other things, access to education and health care. Though Americans are generally happy, there are still a lot of unhappy folks if money does indeed buy happiness. There's a considerable gap between the richest and poorest -- the top 20% of the population earn about eight times as much as the bottom 20%. So if happiness is what you want, look inward, rather than what your neighbors might have. Sounds obvious, but sometimes it takes a team of economists to prove it. |
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