【英语阅读】中国的不幸福鸿沟.doc

China's Growing Unhappiness Gap
发布时间：2012-06-03
文章出自：

In 1974, a University of Pennsylvania economics professor named Richard Easterlin published the innocuously titled study, “Does Economic Growth Improve the Human Lot?” (The conventional wisdom at the time being, “Duh.”) In it, he examined 30 surveys conducted in 19 countries, and came up with an unexpected conclusion: while income correlated closely to happiness within countries—richer Nigerians were happier than poorer Nigerians—it wasn’t clear that, on balance, richer countries were any happier than poorer countries. Happiness was purely relative.
The so-called Easterlin Paradox became a cornerstone of “happiness economics” and remains hotly contested. (Critics says its rubbish, and absolute $ = absolute ☺. Easterlin stands by his evidence.) Now, a new study (PDF) from Easterlin and his colleagues at USC builds on the theory. In the case of China, the authors found, a booming economy may be making everyone wealthier—but only a fraction of them are happier because of it.
For the last two decades, China has hewed closely to the old capitalist saw, “A rising tide lifts all boats.” Across demographics and geographies—rich and poor, young and old, urban and rural—economic liberalization has meant higher incomes and standards of living for all Chinese. Per capita consumption has increased four-fold, the authors report, but “life satisfaction” hasn’t risen with it. Instead, a growing wealth gap has created a shadow happiness gap.
In 1990, two-thirds of both the richest and poorest Chinese reported high life satisfaction. By 2007, those figures had diverged wildly, with contentment among rich Chinese climbing to 71 percent, but plummeting to 42 percent among poor Chinese. Individual wealth might have grown as the economy boomed, but in terms of happiness, the authors maintain, “China has gone from being one of most egalitarian countries to one of the least.”
And that change has to do with an even more seismic one taking place in China in the last 20 years: the loss of the social safety net. In 1994, China began to drastically overhaul its “state-owned enterprises, ” inefficient relics of socialism that kept the lumpen masses placated. “Urban workers, ” the authors write, “were essentially guaranteed life-time positions and associated benefits, including subsidized food, housing, health care, child care, and pensions, as well as jobs for grown children.”
Free-market reforms meant the end of this “iron rice bowl, ” precisely as rural labor was beginning to flood into cities. The result was widespread unemployment and uncertainty, especially among older workers. It was only in the early aughts that economic growth overtook the collapse of the country’s state-owned enterprises and joblessness began to fall.
Today, China continues to boom, but without its safety net in place, and the effects are beginning to show. The authors observe that, as with life satisfaction, poor Chinese now report declines health and financial satisfaction, too. Atomization is taking hold. The positive effects of rising income are being undercut by “material aspirations.”
Happiness economists have long regarded growth as something of a Pandora’s box—we’re happy till we realize how much we don’t have. China’s only just begun to lift the lid
中国二十年的经济增长让所有人都富起来了。但是南加州大学的最新研究表明，财富的激增使中国的穷人感到愈发的不幸福。
    2012年6月1日凯文.查尔斯.雷德蒙报道
    1974年，宾夕法尼亚大学经济学教授理查德.伊斯特林发表了题为《经济增长真的提升了人类生活吗？》的研究报告。（当时的传统观点认为这是一句废话。）在研究报告中，他检查了19个国家的30项研究，得出一个惊人的结论：在国家内部，收入与幸福感紧密联系在一起，比如说尼日利亚的富人就比穷人快乐；但是总体说来，富国是否比穷国更具幸福感我们就不得而知了。幸福感是纯粹联系在一起的。
    这被称为“伊斯特林悖论”，它成为了“幸福经济学”的基石，至今仍饱受争论。（批评者认为这是废话，因为“钱=快乐”。伊斯特林则准备了许多证据来反驳。）如今，伊斯特林与其在南加州大学的同事所致力的一项新研究构建了一种理论。他们发现，就中国而言，经济繁荣使所有人富起来了，但只有一小部分人因此而感到比原来更幸福。
    在过去的二十年里，中国斩断了老牌资本主义的垄断，可谓“水涨船高”。根据人口统计和地理地形的数据（富人穷人、老老少少、城市农村），经济自由化意味着全部中国人都会有更高的收入和生活水平。研究人员指出，中国的人均消费长了四倍，但是“生活满意度”并没有随之而增长。相反的是，财富差距的增大导致幸福落差的拉大。
    1990年，中国有三分之二的人（无论穷富）认为自己有很高的生活满意度。到了2007，这些数据发生了重大分歧，富人的满意指数飙升至71%，而穷人的满意指数骤跌至42%。个人财富本应随着经济繁荣而增长，但是研究人员称，就幸福感而言，“中国已经从最奉行平等主义的国家变成了最不奉行这一主义的国家之一了”。
    这一变化与过去20年内中国的社会保障制度的缺失有着很大的关系。1994年，中国开始彻底整顿国有企业，社会主义低效的残根儿给了大批失业者一些抚慰。研究人员指出，“城市劳动者从根本上有了终生工作职位和相关福利的保证，包括补贴的粮食、住房、健康保健、儿童保健、养老金以及给孩子找工作。”
    就在农村劳动力大批涌入城市的时候，自由市场改革标志了“铁饭碗”时代的终结。这引起的结果就是大规模的失业和不稳定，对老一辈儿工人来说尤为如此。只有在早期的调控中，经济增长超越了国有企业的倒闭，随后，失业全面降临。
    今天，中国经济持续繁荣，但是由于社会保障制度不健全，经济增速已开始放缓。研究人员发现，不仅仅是对生活的满意度，中国的穷人认为自己的健康满意度和财政满意度都在下降。两极分化正在生根发芽。收入上升的积极影响正在遭受“物质欲望”的削弱。
    幸福经济学一直将经济增长视作潘多拉盒子内的东西——直到发觉自己已经失去太多太多时，我们才会不快乐。而中国，恰巧在打开潘多拉盒盖。
    关于凯文.查尔斯.雷德蒙
    凯文.查尔斯.雷德蒙是明德学院环境新闻学的研究员。他为《华盛顿邮报》、《明尼苏达月报》、《明尼阿波利斯明星论坛报》、大西洋月刊网、《The Millions》杂志和《兰普斯》杂志撰稿。