幸福生活的七大秘诀

秘诀2：朋友比法拉利价更高 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.
       有多少钱才能让我们感到幸福？这很难说，因为收入对幸福的影响，很大程度上取决于我们的同事、邻居和朋友们的收入。不过，一般而言，要说出需要多少钱，才能让一个离群索居的人和社交积极的人同样幸福——既不多也不少——则要容易一些。
 
      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.
       对于各种不可买卖的物品（比如友谊或婚姻带来的乐趣），其价格的计算基于一个非常简单的理念，它是由华威大学(University of Warwick)经济学家安德鲁•奥斯瓦德(Andrew Oswald)上世纪90年代初率先提出的。想象一下，一般来说，金钱会让人幸福。再想象一下，那些每天都能看到朋友的人，要比那些离群索居的人幸福得多。那么，原则上讲，我们有可能计算出还需要多少额外收入，才能恰好弥补社交生活匮乏给某人造成的损失。
 
       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，在英国，根据一种自行报告的7点幸福标准，收入增加1000英镑，将令幸福感上升大约0.0007点。另一方面，更频繁地会朋友，将令幸福感提升约0.161点。这意味着，用喜好交际的生活换取离群索居的生活，需要收入增加大约 0.161/0.0007英镑，即每年23万英镑左右，略高于一辆熠熠生辉的法拉利新款612 Scaglietti。