马阳吴银花你还来:幸福果然无法用金钱来计算吗？

专栏作家：杰西卡·皮尔斯·罗通蒂

"Why do you have five kids and a huge mortgage and three cars if you have to compromise everything (including the time you spend with them) in order to pay for it all?"

“假如你不得不对一切进行妥协来支付所拥有的一切（包括你花在他们身上的时间），你为什么一定非要有五个孩子、一处大房产和三辆车呢？”

That's the question Lisa Napoli raised today on Forbes Woman, and she hits a nerve even for those of us who rent an apartment and take public transportation. In the age of overwork, when quality of life can slip away so easily, is a bigger salary the reason to choose one job over another? 

这是今天在刊登在《福布斯妇女》杂志上的一个问题，提问者名叫莉莎·纳波利。莉莎的问题甚至对我们这些租住公寓，乘公交车上下班的人也有所触动。在这个超负荷工作的时代，我们的生活质量就这样轻易地下滑着，我们不禁要问，高薪确实是我们选择一个新职位的理由吗？

In a recession especially, going for the position with higher pay is tempting. But if it drains you in too many ways to count, is the higher paying job really more valuable to you? Can we assign a dollar value to the restorative powers of a vacation with friends, or the satisfaction you feel from having time to pursue interests outside of the office?

特别是在经济衰退期，找寻一个高薪职位确实是个诱惑。可是，如果这个新职位将在各个方面将你榨干，它对你会是真正有价值的吗？我们果然可以花一美元来买到和朋友渡假后那种焕然一新重新出发的精神头吗？或者花一美元来享受那种在工作之余花时间在兴趣爱好上所获得的满足感吗？

The state of Maryland is giving it a try, using something called the "Genuine Progress Indicator,"or GPI. Turning what "makes sense" in people's life decisions into actual cents, GPI assigns a dollar value to things like housework, volunteering, and commute time, while subtracting from GPI the cost of crime, divorce, and water pollution. The goal of GPI is to look beyond bottom lines to take into account the many disparate economic, environmental and social elements that make up our lives and using that data as an indicator of social progress.

马里兰州利用“真实进步指数”GPI在这方面做出尝试。该指数将人们生活的决定因素换算成真钱，GPI指数将诸如家务、志愿服务、与人交际时间等事项视同有一美元价值，而将犯罪、离婚、水污染等视作价值减少项。GPI的目标是要超越底线而将许许多多彼此分离的经济、环境及社会因素综合起来考虑（正是这些因素构成了我们的生活），以此做为衡量我们社会进步的数据参考量。

Putting a price tag on these aspects of life may sound a bit mercenary, but as Frank Skinner, Director of Special Projects in the Maryland Department of Labor, explained to Marketplace:"We're looking at the economic impact of the reduction in amount of discretionary time an individual may have. What we assume is that when folks have leisure they'll engage in productive activities, social events with family, exercise ... but when they have more work commitments what happens is that due to the reduction in leisure time there's an economic value that we can assess from that."

马里兰州利用“真实进步指数”GPI在这方面做出尝试。该指数将人们生活的决定因素换算成真钱，GPI指数将诸如家务、志愿服务、与人交际时间等事项视同有一美元价值，而将犯罪、离婚、水污染等视作价值减少项。GPI的目标是要超越底线而将许许多多彼此分离的经济、环境及社会因素综合起来考虑（正是这些因素构成了我们的生活），以此做为衡量我们社会进步的数据参考量。

But lawmakers in Maryland aren't the first to take the quality of their citizen's lives into account when measuring prosperity. If you aren't sold on GNP or GPI as be-all, end-all measures of success, try GNH (Gross National Happiness). Napoli points out that the Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan has attempted to quantify well-being since the 1970s, drawing on Buddhist spiritual values to "offer a subjective reality check to traditional economic indicators by injecting societal and individual happiness." GNH lays out seven categories of wellness: economic, environmental, physical, mental, workplace, social, and political, and GNH is calculated by directly surveying the population on their level of fulfillment in these areas. 

不过，马里兰州议会并非在衡量社会进步时将其市民的生活质量考虑其中的第一人。如果不是将终极成功标准定义在GNP或是GPI上，来试试GNH（全民幸福指数）。纳波利指出位于喜玛拉雅山脉的布丹王国自1970年代起就在试图要考量人民的幸福质量，依照布丹人的精神价值观是要“利用注入社会及个人幸福水平这一方法以提供某种主观的现实来修正传统的经济指标。”GNH设有七类幸福指标：经济、环境、健康、精神、职场、社会及政治，并且直接调查人们在这些领域内不同水平的履行情况来计算GNH值。

Have the people of Bhutan discovered the secret to fulfillment beyond purely economic means? The New York Times reports: "While household incomes in Bhutan remain among the world's lowest, life expectancy increased by 19 years from 1984 to 1998, jumping to 66 years." Speaking to The Times, Lyonpo Jigmi Thinley, Bhutan's home minister and ex-prime minister, said, "We have to think of human well-being in broader terms... material well-being is only one component."

布丹人是否发现了超越单纯经济因素而获取幸福的秘密？纽约时报报道说：“尽管布丹国的家庭收入仍位于全球最低水平，但自1984年至1998年期间其人口平均寿命延长了19年，跃至66岁。”布丹国内政部长也是前首相Lyonpo Jigmi Thinley在接受纽约时报采访时说：“我们在更广阔的范围内考虑人类的幸福，物质满足仅仅是其中一项。”

The idea is gaining traction, according to Pavan K Verma, India's ambassador to Bhutan, who told The Telegraph:"There are limits to the satisfaction economic growth by itself provides... There's a search to look beyond material fulfilment. There are many aspects of social life in countries as diverse as China and the United Kingdom which are falling apart, like family relations and community life. It is becoming an atomised, individualistic world. The Gross National Happiness looks at the quality of life, how much leisure time you have, what's happening in your community, and how integrated you feel with your culture."

根据印度驻布丹国大使Pavan K Verma的说法，布丹国的这一思想正在获得更广阔范围的认同。他接受每日电讯报采访时说：“人们对于自身的经济增长的满足总存在着一些限制……是有超越物质满足的探寻的。社会生活是有很多方面的，好像家庭关系和社区生活，他们在中国和英国这两个相距遥远的国家就很不一样。世界正在变成一个分散如原子的，极端个人主义的地方。而全民幸福指数着眼于生活质量，着眼于你有多少闲暇时间、在你的社区发生了什么新鲜事、以及你感觉在多大程度上与你的文化相融合。”

The search to measure something beyond material fulfillment as a sign of progress may be coming to a society near you: In New York on July 19, 2011, The UN adopted a resolution entitled, "Happiness: towards a holistic approach to development," a resolution premised on the idea that "the pursuit of happiness is a fundamental human goal" that embodies the spirit of the Millenium Development Goals. 

寻求超越物质满足的测量标准被视为社会进步的一个标志正在接近你所处的社会。联合国于2011年7月19日在纽约做出决议，题为“幸福：发展的全方位思考”，这项决议基于“追求幸福是人类的基本目标”这一体现了千年发展计划的精神的思想而提出的。

What do you think: Can we can assign a dollar value to happiness? During a recession, it may seem like we can't afford to ask this question, though to that I'd reply: when it comes to our well-being and the well-being of our families in difficult times, can we afford not to?

“我们能花钱买来幸福吗？”你对这个问题怎么想？在经济萧条期，我们好像都没本钱来问这么个问题，尽管如此，我的回答将会是这样的：困难时期，要谈及我们的个人及家庭幸福，我们究竟能不能负担得起？