幸福生活的七大秘訣

秘訣2：朋友比法拉利價(jià)更高 Friends are worth more than a new Ferrari

       How much money is enough to make us happy? Because the effect of income on our happiness depends largely on how much money our colleagues, neighbours and friends earn, it’s difficult to say. Yet it’s easier to say how much extra money is required, on average, for a socially isolated person to be just as happy as a socially active person – no more, no less.
       有多少錢才能讓我們感到幸福？這很難說，因?yàn)槭杖雽?duì)幸福的影響，很大程度上取決于我們的同事、鄰居和朋友們的收入。不過，一般而言，要說出需要多少錢，才能讓一個(gè)離群索居的人和社交積極的人同樣幸福——既不多也不少——則要容易一些。
 
      The calculation of prices of various non-marketable goods such as the joy of friendship or marriage, first put forward in the early 1990s by the University of Warwick economist Andrew Oswald, is based on a very simple idea. Imagine that, on average, money makes people happy. Imagine also that people who see their friends every day are significantly happier than those who live in isolation. In principle, then, it’s possible to calculate how much extra income would have to be given to someone to compensate exactly for the lack of social life.
       對(duì)于各種不可買賣的物品（比如友誼或婚姻帶來的樂趣），其價(jià)格的計(jì)算基于一個(gè)非常簡單的理念，它是由華威大學(xué)(University of Warwick)經(jīng)濟(jì)學(xué)家安德魯•奧斯瓦德(Andrew Oswald)上世紀(jì)90年代初率先提出的。想象一下，一般來說，金錢會(huì)讓人幸福。再想象一下，那些每天都能看到朋友的人，要比那些離群索居的人幸福得多。那么，原則上講，我們有可能計(jì)算出還需要多少額外收入，才能恰好彌補(bǔ)社交生活匱乏給某人造成的損失。
 
       In Britain, for example, a pay rise of £1,000 is associated with an increase in happiness of approximately 0.0007 points on a self-reported seven-point happiness scale. Seeing friends more often, on the other hand, is associated with an increase in happiness of approximately 0.161 points. What this implies is that swapping a sociable life for an isolated one requires a pay rise of approximately 0.161/0.0007 – roughly £230,000 a year. That’s a little more than a new, gleaming Ferrari 612 Scaglietti.
       例如，在英國，根據(jù)一種自行報(bào)告的7點(diǎn)幸福標(biāo)準(zhǔn)，收入增加1000英鎊，將令幸福感上升大約0.0007點(diǎn)。另一方面，更頻繁地會(huì)朋友，將令幸福感提升約0.161點(diǎn)。這意味著，用喜好交際的生活換取離群索居的生活，需要收入增加大約 0.161/0.0007英鎊，即每年23萬英鎊左右，略高于一輛熠熠生輝的法拉利新款612 Scaglietti。