幸福与财富金钱不能给我带来爱情的幸福(中英文)
2020-03-01 17:17:15 来源：范文大全收藏下载本文
幸福与财富:金钱不能给我带来爱情的幸福（中英文）
“确实让人钦佩”。这是孔子对一位居住环境险恶、吃着糟糠之食，“却不会让自己的快乐受到影响”的人的形容。
时至今日，中国统治者依旧关心财富与幸福感之间的关系。他们认为自己对权力的把握取决于能否让人们感到幸福。此外，他们估计，快速增长的经济是一切因素中最重要的。过去几十年来，他们都做到了，但最近几年，尽管依旧涌现了不少成功故事（见文章），但人与人之间的不平等却加剧了，骚动很常见。有人估计，每天中国发生的小动荡多达500起。这不禁让人担忧。单纯的经济增长可能是不够的，而政府急切需要让国家日益增长的财富进一步合理分配。
最近发表的两份学术研究都认为现实更为复杂。其中一份发表于五月份，研究人员追踪访问了一些城市居民在1990年至2010年这段时间的幸福感。这段时间每人的产出与消费提高了至少四倍。由南加利福利亚大学一位著名的教“幸福感”的Richard Easterlin教师为领导的研究组写道，中国式检测经济增长与幸福感之间关系的理想城市。但他们发现的是，在这段经济快速增长的时间里，“没有任何证据表明，生活满意度也随之极大提高了”。
另一份研究报告——“社会火山神话：当今中国的不平等感与分配不公”——则是哈佛大学的Martin Whyte准备的。国家调查数据显示，人们对财富不等有着极大地宽容。这份研究是建立在2004年做的调查问卷之上的，但Whyte先生称2009年调查数据的初步分析认为如果硬说人们有什么改变的话，那就是他们对自己的前景变得更为乐观了。那些谢昂自己的居住条件能再五年内得到改善的人从2004年62%上升到2009年的73%。“若认为导致中国人的不满的罪魁祸首是收入悬殊，这是不对的。“Whyte先生说道。他补充道，其实程序不公正、滥用权力以及资源匮乏才是让人们愤怒游行的原因。
大多数外来工都知道Whyte在说什么。去年，61岁的雷朋才（音译）从湖南省一个小镇移居到北京，并找到一份在餐厅刷碗的工作。他的月薪只有1400圆（合约220美金），大多数被他寄回给其妻子与家庭。北京让他见识到了一些人得以享受到的财富，但他把收入不均看做一种无可争辩的事实。“我没去过美国或英国，但那里不也有很大的不平等吗？”
雷先生声称自己对过去十年来农村地区的减税减负政策感到满意，对于小增长的物价反而不大在意。不过，尽管他的基本医疗保障基本足够，但如果遭遇大病大伤，他还是担心收入无法满足。但他还是明确表示有一件事让他很不满：官场腐败。在他老家，官职要不就是给了朋友要不就成了买卖交易。他哀叹道，一旦伤人了，官员们就会掠夺土地、收取罚款、若不送点东西就以生意倒闭相威胁。他说，官员们为所欲为，而老百姓却拿他们没办法。
Happine and wealth: Money can’t buy
me love
“ADMIRABLE indeed” is how Confucius described a man who, though living in a mean, narrow street with only a single bamboo dish to eat from, “did not allow his joy to be affected.”
The relationship between happine and wealth remains a concern for China’s rulers today.Their working aumption has long been that their grip on power depends on keeping people happy.And that, they reckon, depends on nothing so much as their continued ability to preside over rapid economic growth.They have managed this for decades, but in recent years inequality has grown more extreme and, despite plenty of succe stories (see article), unrest is common.By some counts, as many as 500 protests occur every day acro the country.All this has fed fears that economic growth alone might not be enough and that the government needs urgently to improve the distribution of the nation’s growing wealth.
Two recent academic studies suggest reality is rather more complicated.One of them, published in May, tracked how content a segment of mainly urban people said they were between 1990 and 2010, a period during which output and consumption per person increased at least fourfold.Researchers, led by Richard Easterlin of the University of Southern California, an eminent “happine scholar”, wrote that China was ideal for testing expectations of a correlation between economic growth and well-being.But what they found was “no evidence of a marked increase in life satisfaction” to match the rise in prosperity during that period.
The other study—“Myth of the Social Volcano: Perceptions of Inequality and Distributive Injustice in Contemporary China”—was prepared by Martin Whyte of Harvard University.Based on national survey data, it found a surprisingly high tolerance of wealth disparity.The study was based on surveys conducted in 2004, but Mr Whyte said preliminary analysis of 2009 survey data showed that people had if anything become even more optimistic about their prospects.The proportion of respondents saying they expected their living standards to improve within five years rose from 62% in 2004 to 73% in 2009.“It is a mistake to think that rising income gaps are the main or even a primary source of popular discontent in China, ” Mr Whyte says.It is, he adds, procedural injustices, abuses of power and the lack of recourse that make people angry enough to take to the streets.
Most migrant workers know first-hand what Mr Whyte is talking about.Lei Pengcai, 61, moved to Beijing last year from a small town in Hunan province and took work washing the dishes in a restaurant.His monthly wage is 1, 400 yuan ($220), most of which he sends back home to his wife and family.Moving to Beijing has opened his eyes to the kind of wealth that some enjoy, but he sees income disparity as a fact of life.“I haven’t been, but isn’t there great inequality in America and England too?” he asks.
Mr Lei declares himself pleased with the past decade’s reduction in rural taxation; not too bothered by moderately rising prices of goods; and somewhat concerned that, although his basic health care is adequate, his coverage would not suffice if he were to suffer a severe illne or injury.But he is clear on the one thing that does make him unhappy: official corruption.In his hometown, official posts are handed out to friends or bought and sold.Once installed, he laments, officials can grab land, charge fines, and demand bribes under threat of closing down a busine.They do whatever they want, he says, and the people cannot stop them.
人人范文网 m.inrrp.com.cn 手机版