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考研英語閱讀理解題源：Happiness and Income
Happiness and Income
Everything that rises must converge
Emerging markets are catching up with theWest in the happiness stakes
POETS, songwriters and left-wing politicians hate the idea, but for decades opinion-poll evidence has been clear: money buys happiness and the richer you are, the more likely you are to express satisfaction with your life. Until now. A survey of 43 countries published on October 30th by the Pew Research Centre of Washington, DC, shows that people in emerging markets are within a whisker of expressing the same level of satisfaction as people in rich countries. It is the biggest qualification to the standard view of happiness and income seen so far.
The Pew poll asks respondents to measure, on a scale from zero to ten, how good their lives are. (Those who say between seven and ten are counted as happy.) In 2007, 57% of respondents in rich countries put themselves in the top four tiers; in emerging markets the share was 33%; in poor countries only 16%—a classic expression of the standard view.
But in 2014, 54% of rich-country respondents counted themselves as happy, whereas in emerging markets the percentage jumped to 51%. This was happening just at a time when emerging markets' chances of converging economically with theWest seemed to be receding.
Rich countries did not experience steep declines in happiness. The decreases in America and Britain were tiny (a single percentage point), while the share of happy Germans rose 13 points. A large drop in formerly joyful Spain ensured a modest overall decline for the rich. But the convergence happened thanks to huge improvements in countries such as Indonesia (+35) and Pakistan (+22). In 12 of the 24 emerging markets, half or more people rate their life satisfaction in the top tiers of the ladder.
This is not to say the link between income and satisfaction has been snapped. Poor countries still lag behind: only a quarter of the people there are in the happy tiers—half the level of the other two groups. There is also a clear link between happiness and income growth (as opposed to income levels). China's GDP rose at an annual average rate of 10% in 2007-14 and its happiness level rose 26 points.
Within countries, richer people express more satisfaction than their poorer neighbours. The study divided respondents into categories with higher and lower incomes and fewer and more household goods. In every country in every group, richer folk with more goods expressed higher levels of happiness. So at a personal (as opposed to national) level, money does buy happiness. And if you ask people about different aspects of their lives—health, family life, religion, standard of living—it turns out that satisfaction with living standards still has the biggest influence on happiness.
But the secret of happiness has been scattered around. Women tend to be happier than men.Married people are happier than unmarried ones. Latin Americans are more satisfied than people in other emerging markets. Asians are the most optimistic; Middle Easterners the least. Income still matters. But it has been dethroned.
中文對照閱讀：
收入與幸福感
幸福的家庭總是相似的
新興國家的幸福指數(shù)將要趕上西方
詩人，作詞家，左翼政治家總是反駁這樣一個(gè)觀點(diǎn)：錢可以買到幸福，一個(gè)人越有錢，他對生活的滿意感就可能越高。但是十年來民意調(diào)查卻清楚證明了這一點(diǎn)。不過，位于華盛頓特區(qū)的皮尤研究中心調(diào)查了43 個(gè)國家后，發(fā)現(xiàn)發(fā)展中國家的人對生活滿意度與富有國家的人們生活滿意度相差無幾。這是迄今為止出現(xiàn)的最能證明人越有錢越幸福這個(gè)觀點(diǎn)的證據(jù)。
皮尤讓被調(diào)查者用0 到10 之間數(shù)字表示對生活的滿意度。(如果給出數(shù)字在7 和10 之間，認(rèn)為該調(diào)查人幸福。)2007 年的調(diào)查顯示富有國家57%的調(diào)查者認(rèn)為自己是幸福的人;發(fā)展中國家有33%認(rèn)為自己幸福;在貧困國家幸福的人只有16%—這是證明金錢和幸福感相關(guān)的典型例子。
2014 年中富有國家幸福的人有54%，然而發(fā)展中國家的百分比躍到了51%。此時(shí)發(fā)展中國家抓住機(jī)會發(fā)展經(jīng)濟(jì)正在趕上經(jīng)濟(jì)似乎萎靡的西方國家，兩個(gè)時(shí)間點(diǎn)不謀而合。
富有國家在幸福感上并沒有大幅下降。美國和英國只是下降了一個(gè)百分點(diǎn)，德國人民的幸福感卻上升了13 個(gè)百分點(diǎn)。但是之前幸福的西班牙人此次調(diào)查指數(shù)大幅下降導(dǎo)致發(fā)達(dá)國家幸福指數(shù)總體稍微有所下降。幸福感大幅提高的幾個(gè)國家是此次匯合發(fā)生的原因，比如印度尼西亞(+35)，巴基斯坦(+22)。24 個(gè)發(fā)展中國家里12 個(gè)國家，半數(shù)、或半數(shù)以上的人感覺對自己生活很滿意。
這并不是證明金錢和生活滿意度之間的關(guān)聯(lián)斷了。貧困國家指數(shù)依舊墊底：只有四分之一的人認(rèn)為自己幸福—是發(fā)展中國家和發(fā)達(dá)國家的一半。該數(shù)據(jù)清晰顯示了工資增長率和幸福感之間的聯(lián)系(而不是收入水平)。中國國內(nèi)生產(chǎn)總值從2007 到2014 年每年以平均10%的速度增長，其人民幸福度提高了26 個(gè)百分點(diǎn)。
在同一個(gè)國家里，富人比窮人更幸福。這項(xiàng)調(diào)查把調(diào)查者分成了高收入群體和低收入群體，家里日用品多的和少的群體。在每個(gè)國家里的每個(gè)群體，有很多如用品較為富有的居民反映出的幸福度更高。如果問到生活中一些其它方面如健康，家庭生活，信仰，生活水平對幸福感的影響，結(jié)果顯示生活水平是影響幸福感最大方面。
但是幸福的秘密還存在很多地方。女人為什么會比男人幸福?已婚者為什么比未婚者幸福?拉丁美洲人為什么比別的發(fā)展中國家幸福?亞洲人為什么如此樂觀?中東人為什么不幸福?收入是一方面，但已經(jīng)不是唯一方面。
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