财富=幸福?

Martin

达沃斯，瑞士 - 世界经济论坛的首席执行官和高层政治家们普遍对今年的经济增长表示乐观。但是人们快乐吗？

根据Carol Graham的著作“快乐的农民与痛苦的百万富翁”中提到的，有许多“失败的成功者”存在。新经济基金会的Stewart Wallis说，活得好的关键不仅在于财富，而是“发展以及感到自己的价值”。

哥伦比亚大学的Jeffrey Sachs说，美国的经济体制由于过度生产已经破坏了国家的灵魂：过度饮食，过度收看电视和过度消费正在支配着数百万美国人的生活。 “我们为使人成瘾而设计了这种社会体系”他说。

“我们是卑劣的。我们的政治是卑劣的”，他对世界其他地方以及美国本土的穷人说：“我们处于一个沉迷在社会财富中的不幸社会。”

诺贝尔经济学奖获得者经济学家Joseph Stiglitz提出的一点，国内生产总值不仅是不准确的，而且对于一个国家整体的幸福，有潜在的误导性。

“加州监狱开支超过教育”他指出。监狱支出也能增加国内生产总值，但未必会提高全民的福利。

有迹象显示有些罢工甚至与超级精英产生共鸣，今年的达沃斯论坛的几次会议上讨论了北欧的高税收高效益模式。挪威，瑞典和丹麦等发达国家扩大了福利计量标准，包括了如文化素养和健康标准。

碰巧的是，他们也保持了可观的增长速度和适度的债务水平。

Of Wealth and (Un)Happiness
DAVOS, Switzerland — The chief executives and top politicians at the World Economic Forum were generally upbeat about economic growth this year. But are they happy?

According to Carol Graham of Brookings, author of “The Paradox of Happy Peasants and Miserable Millionaires,” there is no shortage of what she calls “frustrated achievers.” Stewart Wallis of the New Economics Foundation in Britain, said that the key to well-being is not just wealth but “flourishing and feeling valued.”

Jeffrey Sachs of Columbia University said America’s economic system had corrupted the soul of the country by engineering excess: over-eating, excessive television-watching and material consumption now dominated the lives of millions of Americans. “We designed a kind of society that is designed for addiction,” he said.

“We’re mean. Our politics is mean,” to the rest of the world and to America’s own poor, he said. “We’re an unhappy society amid wealth.”

Joseph Stiglitz, the Nobel-prize winning economist, made the point that gross domestic product, as generally measured, was not only an imprecise but a potentially misleading indicator of a country’s overall well-being.

“California is spending more on prisons than on education,” he points out. Prison spending increases G.D.P., he points out, but not necessarily its welfare.

In a sign that these themes strike a chord even with the super elite, several sessions this year in Davos focused on the Nordic high tax-high benefit model. Norway, Sweden and Denmark consistently top the United Nations Human Development Index and similarly broad measures of welfare that include criteria like literacy and health.

As it happens, they are also highly productive countries with respectable growth rates and modest debts levels.

原文地址：http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2011/01/29/of-wealth-and-unhappiness/