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 th
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 th
admin
2017-06-27
14
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 overwhelming, 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.
Global surveys prove Gilbert’s point that money increases happiness only when it relieves the utmost poverty.
选项
答案
E
解析
根据Global surveys及Gilbert可定位至E段,该段前半部分讲述了这些全球性调查的结果,最后一句前半部明确指出“这证明了Gilbert的观点:……”,文中所述与本题表述一致,故确定E为本题出处。
转载请注明原文地址:https://jikaoti.com/ti/mRjFFFFM
0
大学英语四级
相关试题推荐
Ifyouareayoungcollegestudent,mostofyour【B1】______aboutyourhealthandhappinessinlifeareprobably【B2】______thepr
NewwordsentertheEnglishlanguageallthetime.InfactEnglishhasalwaysbeeninastateof【B1】______andinrecentyearsm
A、Heplayedhispartquitewell.B、Hewasnotdramaticenough.C、Heperformedbetterthanthesecretary.D、Heexaggeratedhispa
A、Inthevisaoffice.B、Inataxi.C、Inatravelagency.D、Inapark.B女士说:“我想去中环的中国签证办公室,它在香港公园旁边,这儿,标在地图上这个位置。”(中环是香港的一个繁华地方。)
A、Shethankedthemanforbuyinghertheskirt.B、Herboyfriendpresentedittoherasagift.C、Sheboughttheskirtonherbir
A、ShecantellJoanwhensheseesheratnoon.B、SheshouldtellJoan’sbrotheraboutthereception.C、ShemustcallonJoanaft
在中国,孩子的满月酒(One-Month-OldFeast)是其人生中第一个重要仪式。孩子满月那天,家人邀请亲朋好友来一起庆祝。通常孩子穿上狗头帽(doghat)、虎头鞋,象征着孩子能幸运一生。孩子周岁那天的抓周仪式(One-Year-OldCatc
A、Protein.B、Calcium.C、Zinc.D、Vitamin.D短文提到,能量饮料的营养成分单子上包含了从维生素到人参等各种东西。D正确。
KeepOurSeasCleanA)Bytheyear2050itisestimatedthattheworld’spopulationcouldhaveincreasedtoaround12billio
A、Theeconomicsituationisglooming.B、Therearelessnewgraduateseveryyear.C、Theworkershavelessexperience.D、Theemplo
随机试题
偏好;更喜欢n.p________
可使丙氨酸氨基转移酶(ALT)升高的药品有()。
甲因为侵权纠纷与邻居乙打起了官司,甲向法院提出先予执行的申请,法院作出了先予执行的裁定,但乙拒不执行裁定,法院执行干警前去强制执行时,乙聚集其朋友丙、丁等多人对执行干警进行围攻、辱骂,并向干警和警车投掷石块,将1名干警砸成轻伤,并抢夺1名干警的枪支。对此,
下列选项中,说法正确的有()。
有效证件是各国政府为其公民颁发的出国证件,邻国边民使用的是()。
以治疗前后量表SCL-90总分的改变来反映疗效,其减分率的计算公式为()。
下列激素与水盐代谢无关的是()。
国家经济实力的大小,通常从()方面来衡量。
水:河流
Whatwasthewomanplanningtodotoday?
最新回复
(
0
)