你幸福嗎？幸福指數告訴你

In Paris, pleasure boats ply the Seine River as people stroll along its banks on a summer day. The French have six weeks of vacation, free universities, top-notch public transport and arguably the world's best health care system. So who could be unhappy here? Yet in poll after poll, the French rank as some of the biggest malcontents in the Western world.
夏日，巴黎塞納河上游船穿梭，河畔行人如織。法國人擁有六週的假期，免費的大學，一流的公共交通和無可爭議的世界上頂尖的醫療系統。在這樣的國度還能有誰不幸福呢？但是民意調查卻表明，西方國家中，法國對現狀不滿的人民最多。

Parisian Bruno Fontaine is relaxing by the edge of the river. He says his countrymen don't realize how good they have it. But as world travelers, he says he and his wife do.
巴黎人布魯諾·方丹正在河畔小憩。他說法國國人意識不到他們擁有着多好的生活，但是像他和他妻子環遊世界過後，就能感覺到這點。

"Every time we come back to France and to Paris we can really enjoy how nice our country is," he says. Fontaine says in Paris, there is an incredible range of cultural opportunities, the food is incredible and life is amazingly fulfilling. "I can't imagine living in any other big city."
“每次我們回到法國，回到巴黎之後，就能感覺到這裏的生活真的是很愜意。”方丹說在巴黎，你有機會去接觸不同層面的文化，食物又美味，生活真是想不到的充實。“我想象不到其他任何一個像巴黎一樣的大都市。”

So what is it that makes people happy?
那麼，什麼會讓人覺得幸福呢？

Economists have long understood the importance of going beyond economic data to gauge the true well-being of a society. Gross Domestic Product alone cannot alone measure quality of life. The Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has come up with a tool to try to capture the intangible elements that make for a happy life.
長久以來，經濟學家都知道不能侷限於經濟數據，要去衡量社會真正的幸福水平。僅憑國內生產總值是不能反映生活質量的。經濟合作與發展組織（OECD，以下簡稱經合組織）巴黎分部正試圖找出使人們生活幸福的無形因素。

The Better Life Index was launched three years ago. Now, with more than 4 million respondents in 180 countries, it is beginning to paint a picture of what people are looking for.
“幸福指數”在三年前開始施行。基於來自180個國家300多萬名受調查者，它在繪製一幅關於人們真正在追求什麼的藍圖。

Japanese users worry most about safety — understandable in the wake of the Fukoshima nuclear accident. Latin Americans strive for better education. The Better Life Index allows respondents to go online and rank 11 well-being indicators from income to environment, in order of importance to them, and then see how their country actually stacks up.
日本人大多擔心安全問題，而在福島核電站事故之後，這也是可以理解的；拉丁美洲人民則希望得到更好的教育。幸福指數使得受調查者可以在線上將十一個幸福指標根據重要性排序，從而調查者能發現網民所在國家在哪方面有欠缺。

Claire Cibois and her boyfriend Pierre are walking along the river. They've just been to a museum and are heading to the cinema. She says what makes life good is having some money, "not too much but enough to live on," she says. "And the free time to enjoy life."
克萊爾·西博思和男朋友皮埃爾正沿着河岸散步。他們剛剛從博物館出來，正要去看電影。她說好生活是需要金錢支撐的，“也不用太多，足夠生活就好，”克萊爾說，“還得有閒暇享受生活。”

Work-life balance is one of the nebulous concepts the OECD's Better Life Index hopes to quantify. Americans rank work-life balance as a top priority. But their country sits near the bottom in that category. OECD-head Angel Gurria says that should send a strong message to American politicians.
如何平衡生活和工作是經合組織幸福指數想量化的模糊概念之一。美國人將平衡生活和工作視爲最重要的事情，但是美國卻在這個指標下排在倒數。經合組織祕書長安吉爾·葛利亞指出，美國政客應該要重視這一點。

"This is a potentially enormously powerful policy instrument going beyond GDP, to inform governments of what people want and what keeps them awake at night," he says.
“除了國內生產總值（GDP）之外，這也是一項非常強大的政策工具，它能夠告訴執政者人民究竟想要什麼，這足以讓他們晚上睡不着了。”

The OECD's Anthony Gooch, who helped design the index, says comparisons are key to its success."What is it that people love doing?" he asks. "Human beings are constantly peering over the fence. What is my neighbor doing? How is my neighbor performing?"
經合組織中幫助設計這項指數的安東尼·古奇認爲人與人之間的攀比心是至關重要的。“人們喜歡做什麼？”他問道，“人們總是願意越過圍牆眺望下隔壁——我的鄰居幹什麼呢？我的鄰居表現得如何？”

Gooch and his boss Gurria say The Better Life Index allows policy makers to compare and contrast how their county is performing and learn from how successful countries have handled the same issues.
古奇和葛利亞都認爲，幸福指數使得決策者將自己的國家和其他國家進行對比，從而向成功的典範進行學習。

Gurria believes the Better Life Index could even improve democracy by connecting policies to people's lives. And the more people who go on line and participate, the sharper a tool it will become.
葛利亞認爲幸福指數甚至可以通過將政策和人民生活銜接在一起從而提高民主。人們上線參與越多，它就會成爲越有效的工具。

Back along the Seine River, Bruno Fontaine talks about his priorities."For me it's health," he says. "When you have health, everything is easier."
回到塞納河邊，布魯諾·方丹談到他自己心中最重要的，“是健康，”他說，“只要身體健康，做什麼都容易些。”

Then he laughs: "Health and love!"
他想了想又大笑了起來，“健康，還有愛！”

Too bad the OECD doesn't have an index to measure that last one.
不過真是太遺憾了，經合組織並沒有將後一個納入指標。