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  3. Just as in America, in Britain too, the story told by official statistics does not always match people’s experience. That is esp

Just as in America, in Britain too, the story told by official statistics does not always match people’s experience. That is esp

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问题     Just as in America, in Britain too, the story told by official statistics does not always match people’s experience. That is especially true in places like Newcastle, a former shipbuilding city, which lost out to competition from Asia in the 1970s and has seen living standards stagnate ever since. The U. S. economy, we are told, is booming. In the past two quarters, gross domestic product has risen by more than 3％, the stock market is soaring and unemployment is down to a 17-year low of 4.1％. Many people, though, don’t feel that upside. The perception gap is huge. Unemployment, more broadly measured, is higher than the headline number suggests because many people have simply given up looking for work or are working in part-time jobs when they want a full-time job. One of the prime faults of GDP is that it deals in averages and aggregates. Aggregates hide the nuances of inequality. And averages don’t tell us very much at all.
    Barring a few recessions, the U. S. economy has been on a near relentless upward path since the 1950s. Yet according to a Pew Research Center report, the average hourly wage for nonmanagement private-sector work was $20.67 in 2014, a measly $1.49 higher than in 1964, adjusted for inflation.
    Studies suggest that people care more about relative than absolute wealth. If that is true, then as a minority have become richer, the majority have grown more miserable. In a famous experiment carried out at Emory University, two capuchin monkeys were put side by side and given cucumbers as a reward for performing a task. When one of the monkeys was given better-tasting grapes instead, the monkey receiving cucumbers became distraught, flinging its now despised reward at its trainer. The problems with using GDP as a barometer go beyond masking inequality. Invented in the U. S. in the 1930s, the figure is a child of the manufacturing age–good at measuring physical production but not the services that dominate modern economies. How would GDP measure the quality of mental-health care or the availability of day-care centers and parks in your area? Even the Belarusian economist who practically invented GDP, had doubts about his creation. He did not like the fact that it counted armaments and financial speculation as positive outputs. Above all, he said, GDP should never be confused with well-being. That suggests we need to find different ways of measuring our success. For the most part, we have become enraptured with a single measure that offers only limited information.
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答案 正如在美国和英国一样，官方统计数据所讲述的故事并不总是符合人们的经验。这在纽卡斯尔这样的地方尤其如此，纽卡斯尔曾是一座造船城市，在20世纪70年代输给了亚洲的竞争，从此生活水平停滞不前。据说，美国经济正在蓬勃发展。在过去的两个季度里，国内生产总值增长了3％以上，股市飙升，失业率降至17年来的4.1％的最低水平。不过，很多人并没有这种感觉，这种感觉差距是巨大的。更广泛地衡量失业率，比标题数字所显示的要高，因为许多人只是放弃了找工作，或者在想找全职工作的时候做兼职。国内生产总值的一个主要缺点是它处理的是平均数和总量。聚合隐藏了不平等的细微差别。平均值并不能告诉我们很多。 除了几次经济衰退外，美国经济自20世纪50年代以来一直在近乎无情地向上攀升。然而，根据皮尤研究中心的一份报告，2014年非管理私营部门工作的平均小时工资为20.67美元，比1964年略高1.49美元，并根据通货膨胀进行了调整。 研究表示，人们更关心是相对财富而非绝对财富。若情况属实，一少部分人将变得更加富有，而大多数人则会变得越来越穷。埃默里大学（Emory University）做过一项有名的实验，他们将两只猴子并排放置，每完成一项任务就将获得一根黄瓜作为奖励。当其中一只猴子的奖励变成了更好吃的葡萄后，另外那只得到黄瓜的猴子就变得烦躁不安，并把现在已经不再看重的奖励扔向训练员。国内生产总值（GDP）指标实际上掩盖了不平等问题。国内生产总值（GDP）这个概念诞生于20世纪30年代的美国，是制造业时代的产物，适合衡量物质生产，但不擅长衡量主导现代经济的服务业。国内生产总值（GDP）能衡量心理健康保健的质量，或者你所在社区的日托中心和公园的使用率吗？即便真正发明国内生产总值（GDP）概念的白俄罗斯经济学家也不喜欢这个指标将军备和金融投机量化为实际产出值的事实。总之，他表示，决不能将国内生产总值（GDP）与民生混为一谈。这表明，我们需要采用各种方式来衡量经济成功。大多数情况下，我们只对仅能提供有限信息的单一指标情有独钟。
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