首页
外语
计算机
考研
公务员
职业资格
财经
工程
司法
医学
专升本
自考
实用职业技能
登录
外语
Why Money Doesn’t Buy Happiness What do the experts say? All in all, it was probably a mistake to look for the answer to
Why Money Doesn’t Buy Happiness What do the experts say? All in all, it was probably a mistake to look for the answer to
admin
2010-07-24
65
问题
Why Money Doesn’t Buy Happiness
What do the experts say?
All in all, it was probably a mistake to look for the answer to the eternal question--"Does money buy happiness?"--from people who practice what’s called the gloomy science. For when economists tackled the question, they started from the observation that when people put something up for sale they try to get as much for it as they can, and when people buy something they try to pay as little for it as they can. Both sides in the transaction, the economists noticed, are therefore behaving as if they would be more satisfied, or happier, dare we say, if they ended up receiving more money (the seller) or holding on to more money (the buyer). Hence, more money must be better than less, and the only way more of something can be better than less of it is if it brings you greater satisfaction. The economists’conclusion: the more money you have, the happier you must be.
Suicidal CEOs, miserable magnates (大资本家) and other unhappy rich folks aren’t the only ones giving the lie to this."Psychologists have spent decades studying the relation between wealth and happiness," writes Harvard University psychologist Daniel Gilbert and they have generally concluded that wealth increases human happiness when it lifts people out of extreme poverty and into the middle class but that it does little to increase happiness thereafter."
That flies in the face of intuition (直觉), not to mention economic theory. According to standard economies, the most important commodity you can buy with additional wealth is choice. If you have $20 in your pocket, you can decide between steak and peanut butter for dinner, but if you have only $1 you’d better hope you already have a jar of jelly at home. Additional wealth also lets you satisfy additional needs and wants, and the more of those you satisfy the happier you are supposed to be.
The trouble is, choice is not all it’s cracked up to be. Studies show that people like selecting from among maybe half a dozen kinds of food at the grocery store but find 27 choices overwhelming, leaving them habitually on edge that they could have chosen a better one than they did. And wants, which are nice to be able to afford, have a bad habit of becoming needs. Satisfying needs brings less emotional well-being than satisfying wants.
What do the common people say?
The nonlinear (非线性的) nature of how much happiness money can buy comes through clearly in global surveys that ask people how satisfied they feel with their lives. In a typical survey people are asked to rank their sense of well-being or happiness on a scale of 1 to 7, where I means "not at all satisfied with my life" and 7 means "completely satisfied." Of the American multimillionaires who responded, the average happiness score was 5.8. Homeless people in Calcutta came in at 2.9. But before you assume that money does buy happiness after all. consider who else rated themselves around 5.8: the Inuit of northern Greenland, who do not exactly lead a life of luxury, and the cattle-herding Masai of Kenya, whose huts have no electricity or running water. And proving Gilbert’s point about money buying happiness only when it lifts you out of extreme poverty, slum dwellers in Calcutta-one economic rung above the homeless--rate themselves at 4.6.
Studies tracking changes in a population’s reported level of happiness over time have also dealt a death blow to the money-buys-happiness claim. Since World War II the gross domestic product (GDP) per capita has tripled in the United States. But people’s sense of well-being has barely been altered. Japan has had an even more dramatic rise in GDP per capita since its postwar misery, but measures of national happiness have been flat, as they have also been in Western Europe during its long postwar boom, according to social psychologist Ruut Veenhoven. An analysis of more than 150 studies on wealth and happiness concluded that "economic indicators have obvious shortcomings" as approximations of well-being across nations.
That’s partly because in an expanding economy, in which former luxuries such as washing machines become necessities, the newly well-off people don’t feel the same joy in having a machine do the laundry that their grandparents, suddenly freed from washboards, did.They just take the machines for granted. Another reason is that an expanding paycheck, especially in an expanding economy, produces expanding aspirations and a sense that there is always one more cool thing out there that you absolutely have to have.
If money doesn’t buy happiness, what does?
Grandma was right when she told you to value health and friends, not money and stuff. Researchers add ful-fillment, a sense that life has meaning, "belonging to civil and other groups, and living in a democracy that respects individual rights and the rule of law. If a nation wants to increase its population’s sense of well-being, says Veenhoven, it should make "less investment in economic growth and more in policies that promote good governance, liberties, democracy, trust and public safety."
Curiously, although money doesn’t buy happiness, happiness can buy money. Young people who describe themselves as happy typically earn higher incomes, years later, than those who said they were unhappy. It seems that a sense of well-being can make you more productive and more likely to show initiative and other traits that lead to a higher income. Contented(知足的) people are also more likely to marry and stay married, as well as to be healthy, both of which increase happiness.
If more money doesn’t buy more happiness, then the behavior of most Americans looks downright insane, as we work harder and longer, decade after decade. But what is insane for an individual is crucial for a national economy-that is, ever more growth and consumption. Gilbert again: "Economies can blossom and grow only if people are deceived into believing that the production of wealth will make them happy...Economies thrive when individuals strive, but because individuals will strive only for their own happiness, it is essential that they mistakenly believe that producing and consuming are routes to personal well-being." In other words, if you want to do your part for your country’s economy, forget all of the above about money not buying happiness.
In an expanding economy, the former luxuries______.
选项
A、are taken for granted by the new generation
B、are soon replaced by new ones
C、produce expanding aspirations
D、free the well-off people from housework
答案
A
解析
该句以洗衣机为例说明过去的奢侈品对现在的年轻人来说不过是理所当然的,紧跟着原文该句的是They just...for granted,与A吻合,故A正确。B看似正确,其实只是一种可能的事实,无原文依据,不可选。
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/QbA7777K
0
大学英语四级
相关试题推荐
A、Thewomanshouldgetanotherjob.B、Hewon’thavetowaitmuchlonger.C、Thewomanwasmistaken.D、Hewaswaitinginthewrong
A、Itburnedupinafire.B、Someonesoakeditinink.C、Hotwaterdamagedtheentirecopy.D、Someonemistakenlythrewitintoth
Thefactthatblindpeoplecan"see"thingsusingotherpartsoftheirbodiesapartfromtheireyesmayhelpustounderstandou
Throughouthistorymanhashadtoacceptthefactthatalllivingthingsmustdie,butpeoplenowlivelongerthanthey【C1】____
A、Anyonecandoitwell.B、Noonecandoitwell.C、Maryprobablycan’tdoit.D、OnlyMarycandoitwell.D
A、Compareherownpaperstoothers.B、Watchoutfortheusualtypingmistakes.C、Havesomeoneelsetypeherpapers.D、Askanothe
Everyanimalisalivingradiator-heatformedinitscellsisgiven【M1】______throughitsskin.Warm-bloodedanimals
Itwasoncethoughtthatairpollutionaffectedonlytheareaimmediatelyaroundlargecitieswithfactoriesand/orheavyautom
Allflights____________(被取消了)becauseoftheterribleweather,theyhadtogotherebytrain.
Theroomisinaterriblemess;it____________(不可能是已经打扫过的).
随机试题
某铁路营业线为双线,由于铁路提速要求需对某段进行落道,落道高度为70cm。该铁路线上方跨越一座公路高架桥,铁路双线两侧净距4.5m。该线路为繁忙干线,每昼夜通过列车46对。根据铁路运营部门规定,对该段单线铁路封锁施工时间最长为48h。现有三种施工方案:
材料一2017年中央一号文件是新世纪以来指导“三农”工作的第14个中央一号文件。这份题为《中共中央国务院关于深入推进农业供给侧结构性改革加快培育农业农村发展新动能的若干意见》的文件,首次提出“田园综合体”概念,指出“支持有条件的乡村建设以农民合作社为
Istheresomethingastruth?Foragoodmanycenturies"thesearchfortruth"hasbeen【C1】______thenoblestactivityofthehuma
虽然普遍猜想地表以下深层的地方太热以致微生物不可能存活,一些科学家还是争辩说地表深处存在着与地表生物隔绝了数百万年的活的微生物群体。他们观点的根据是从1.74英里深的钻洞里取出的样本物质中发现了活着的微生物。科学家的论述依据下面哪个假设?
若函数f(χ)在[0,1]上二阶可微,且f(0)=f(1),|f〞(χ)|≤1,证明:|f′(χ)|≤在[0,1]上成立.
DeaneBrownstartedherlegalcareeratahigh-poweredfirmthattopsmanynewlawyers’listsofbestplacestowork.Butwhenh
考生文件夹下存在一个数据库文件“samp2.accdb”,里面已经设计好表对象“tStud”和“tTemp"。tStud表是学校历年来招收的学生名单,每名学生均有身份证号。对于现在正在读书的“在校学生”,均有家长身份证号,对于已经毕业的学生,家长身份证号为
内存(主存储器)比外存(辅助存储器)
What’sthepercentage(百分数)ofpeoplelivingintownsnow?Howmanytimesmorepeopleliveinurbanareasthaninthecountrysi
The1920sbroughtthefollowingtoAmericansEXCEPT
最新回复
(
0
)