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? [A]All in all, it was probably a mistake to look for the answer to the
Why Money Doesn’t Buy Happiness What do the experts say? [A]All in all, it was probably a mistake to look for the answer to the
admin
2019-09-01
30
问题
Why Money Doesn’t Buy Happiness
What do the experts say?
[A]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.
[B]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.
[C]That flies in the face of intuition(直觉), not to mention economic theory. According to standard economics, 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.
[D]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 ovenvhelming, 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?
[E]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 1 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.
[F]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.
[G]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?
[H]Grandma was right when she told you to value health and friends, not money and stuff. Researchers add fulfillment, 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."
[I]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.
[J]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.
Initiative that leads to a higher income is usually motivated by a sense of well-being.
选项
答案
I
解析
本题说的是“幸福感能带来更多的财富”,该观点出现在I段。该段第3句提到了“幸福感”的好处:能使人们表现出对更高工资的渴望,所述与本题一致,故确定I为本题答案。
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/idZ7777K
0
大学英语四级
相关试题推荐
I’musuallyfairlyskepticalaboutanyresearchthatconcludesthatpeopleareeitherhappierorunhappierormoreorlesscerta
Didyouknowthatallhumanbeingshavea"comfortzone"regulatingthedistancetheystandfromsomeonewhentheytalk?Thisdi
A、Someonephoned.B、Someonecame.C、Thewomanwentout.D、Thewomanphonedtheman.B男士问女士在他外出期间,有没有人打过电话;女士回答说没有人打过电话,但Cooper先生
A、Nosmokingordrinkingguaranteeshappiness.B、Kidswithhappycharactersarelessinclinedtodrink.C、Unhappykidsaremore
A、Smokinghelpstolessenthepressure.B、Smokinghelpshimfallasleepquickly.C、Hecangetmuchhappinessfromsmoking.D、Smo
A、Itneedssomethingspecial.B、Itishighlydemanding.C、Itisthesourceofhappiness.D、Itdoesn’texistinreallife.B
Askaleft-wingBritonwhattheybelieveaboutthesafetyofnuclearpower,andyoucanguesstheiranswer.Askaright-wingAme
Askaleft-wingBritonwhattheybelieveaboutthesafetyofnuclearpower,andyoucanguesstheiranswer.Askaright-wingAme
随机试题
发动机转速下降性试验规定在试验室进行,无载荷要求。()
休克患者经扩容治疗后,测中心静脉压20cmH2O,m压80/50mmHg,应考虑
下列哪项心律失常处理时可应用刺激兴奋迷走神经的方法纠正
支配虹膜环形肌的是
某监理单位对实施监理的某跨越大江大河的桥梁施工工程的动力供应、施工照明、安全防护设备、施工场地空间条件以及交通运输和道路条件在施工前进行了检查。承包单位因条件限制,不能建立试验室,则委托某一具有相应资质的专门试验室作为本工程施工用试验室。监理工程师
“国内外洞穴专家考察后确认,湖北利川的腾龙洞不仅是中国目前已知最大的岩溶洞穴,而且是世界特级洞穴之一,极具旅游和科研价值。”这里运用的修辞手法是()。
一个足球教练这样教导他的队员:“足球比赛从来是以结果论英雄。在足球比赛中,你不是赢家就是输家;在球迷的眼里,你要么是勇者,要么是懦弱者。由于所有的赢家在球迷眼里都是勇敢者,所有每个输家在球迷眼里都是懦弱者。”为使上述足球教练的论证成立,以下哪项是必须假设的
设f(x)=exsin2x,则f(4)(0)=.
以下选项中不能用作C程序合法常量的是()。
A、Hehasopenedanewaccount.B、Something’swrongwithhisaccount.C、Hebegantopayacarloan.D、Hehadtodealwithafinan
最新回复
(
0
)