财富与幸福

财富一直是有些人所渴望的对象。确实，大多数人努力通过诚实的劳动来获取财富。他的努力对造福社会有好处，同时也促进了他们财富的积累，因此也使他们更幸福。

毫无疑问，尤其是在现代社会里，财富带来幸福。各种现代化的家用电器、时装和娱乐层出不穹、日新月异。这一切使我们的生活更为舒适、丰富多彩。因此，没有金钱，我们就无法把羡慕变成现实。

但是当财富脱离了幸福，就会产生各种例外。财富可以促使意志薄弱者养成恶习，如吸毒或赌博，并导致他们自身的毁灭。此外，如果一个人一心追求财富并沉溺于奢侈的生活，他就会失去理智、误入岐途。例如，甚至还有一些政府官员利用他们的职位向求助者索贿。所有这些都会产生财富的负面效应，如果我们不能正确对待财富的话。

依我看，无论如何我们也不能把财富和幸福等同起来。我还认为人们永远也不应该只依仗财富去获得幸福。

Wealth has always been what some people long for. It is true that most of them try to acquire wealth by means of honest labour. Their efforts contribute to the welfare of t he society and at the same time to the accumulation of the ir wealth，and hence to their happiness.

There is no doubt that wealth brings happiness，especi ally in the modern society. Various kinds of up-to-date ho

usehold appliances，latest fashions and recreations make t heir appearance with each passing day. All this makes our l ife more comfortable and colourful. Therefore，without mo ney we cannot turn admiration into reality.

But there are exceptions when wealth does not go hand in hand with happiness. Wealth may tempt weak-willed pers ons to be addicted to harmful habits，such as drug-taking and gambling，and result in their own ruin. Besides，a per son may lose his even some government officials who take advantage of their positions to take bribes from the peopl e turning to them for help. All these will bring about the negative effect of wealth if we don't take a proper attitud e to it.

In my opinion，on no account can we identify wealth wit h happiness. I also believe that one should never reckon on ly on wealth to achieve happiness.

Living standards have soared during the twentieth century, and economists expect them to continue rising in the decades

ahead. Does that mean that we humans can look forward to increasing Happiness?

人们的生活水平在20世纪飞速提高，经济学家预计在未来的几十年里，人们的生活水平还会进一步提高。这是否意味着我们人类的日子有望越过越幸福呢？

Not necessarily, warns Richard A. Easterlin, an economist at the University of Southern California, in his new book, Growth Triumphant: The Twenty-first Century in Historical Perspective. Easterlin concedes that richer people are more likely to report themselves as being happy than poorer people are. But steady improvements in the American economy have not been accompanied by steady increases in people's

self-assessments of their own Happiness. "There has been not improvement in average Happiness in the United States over almost a half century----a period in which real GDP per capita more than doubled," Easterlin reports.

未必如此，南加州大学一位经济学家理查德?A?伊斯特林在其新书《增长的胜利：从历史的视角展望21世纪》中如是告诫世人。他承认，一般来说，富人比穷人更有可能称自己是幸福的。然而，美国人对幸福感的自我评价并未伴随着美国经济稳步发展而有所提高。伊斯特林指出：“过去近半个世纪中，美国的实际人均国内生产总值增加了2倍多，而人们并未感到比以往更幸福。”