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Money and happiness
金錢和快樂
Buy buy love
買來的愛
Smarter ways to spend
更明智方式消費
Happy Money: The Science of Smarter Spending.By Elizabeth Dunn and Michael Norton.
《快樂理財》:更明智消費的科學 伊麗莎白·唐恩和邁克爾·諾頓合著
WHAT would you do with590m? This is now a question for Gloria MacKenzie, an 84-year-old widow who recently emerged from her small, tin-roofed house in Florida to collect the biggest undivided lottery jackpot in history. The blogosphere is full of advice for this lucky Powerball pensioner. But if she hopes her new-found lucre will yield lasting feelings of fulfilment, she could do worse than read “Happy Money” by Elizabeth Dunn and Michael Norton.
如果你有5.9億美元，你會想做什么？葛羅瑞亞·馬克肯澤爾正面對這個問題。她是一位84歲在弗羅里達擁有一座小房子的寡婦，最近獲得了有史以來最大的彩票頭獎。博客上到處是給這位幸運強力球獎金領取者的建議。但如果她希望她新得到的財富會讓她產生持久的滿足感，她可能需要讀讀伊麗莎白·唐恩和邁克爾·諾頓合著的《快樂理財》。
These two academics—she teaches psychology at the University of British Columbia; he lectures on marketing at Harvard Business School—use an array of behavioural research to show that the most rewarding ways to spend money can be counterintuitive. Fantasies of great wealth often involve visions of fancy cars and palatial homes on remote bluffs. Yet satisfaction with these material purchases wears off fairly quickly. What was once exciting and new becomes old-hat; remorse creeps in. It is far better to spend money on experiences, say Ms Dunn and Mr Norton, like interesting trips, unique meals or even going to the cinema. These purchases often become more valuable with time—as stories or memories—particularly if they involve feeling more connected to others
這兩位學者，一位在英屬哥倫比亞大學教授心理學，一位在哈佛商學院教授市場營銷。在書中他們引用了一些列的行為學研究向讀者表明最受益的消費方式可能具有反直覺性質。財富給人的感覺經常會意味著豪車和峭壁旁的富宅。不過，這些物質采購帶來的滿足感會很快消失。曾經讓人興奮和帶來新奇的東西到手之后不過就像是老舊的禮帽；懊惱悄然而至。遠不如把錢花在生活體驗上，唐恩和諾頓說道，比如說旅行，特別的膳食及去電影院看電影。隨著時間的流逝，這些體驗往往會變得珍貴--成為人們的故事或記憶-如果其中包含了情感故事則更是這樣。
This slim volume is packed with tips to help wage slaves as well as lottery winners get the most “happiness bang for your buck”. It seems most people would be better off if they could shorten their commutes to work, spend more time with friends and family and less of it watching television (something the average American spends a whopping two months a year doing, and is hardly jollier for it). Buying gifts or giving to charity is often more pleasurable than purchasing things for oneself, and luxuries are most enjoyable when they are consumed sparingly. This is apparently the reason McDonald's restricts the availability of its popular McRib—a marketing gimmick that has turned the pork sandwich into an object of obsession.
無論你是工資的奴仆，還是彩票的幸運兒在這本薄薄的書，都能讓你獲得“金錢帶來的快樂大爆發”。如果人們能夠縮短他們的工作時間和看電視的時間而花更多的時間跟朋友和家人在一起會讓他們的生活的品質更高。買禮物或捐助慈善機構往往會比給自己買東西更讓人覺得開心。購買限售版奢侈品會讓消費者更開心。這顯然是麥當勞為什么限制受歡迎的烤汁豬排堡的出售量的原因--這個營銷手段使人們為豬肉三明治著迷。
Readers of “Happy Money” are clearly a privileged lot, anxious about fulfilment, not hunger. Money may not quite buy happiness, but people in wealthier countries are generally happier than those in poor ones. Yet the link between feeling good and spending money on others can be seen among rich and poor people around the world, and scarcity enhances the pleasure of most things for most people. Not everyone will agree with the authors' policy ideas, which range from mandating more holiday time to reducing tax incentives for American homebuyers. But most people will come away from this book believing it was money well spent.
《快樂財富》的讀者顯然是生活富足的人，他們考慮的是生活的滿足感而不是饑餓。金錢可能不能買到快樂，但是在更富裕國家的人們一般比貧窮國家的人們快樂。不過，不管是在富裕的國家還是貧窮的國家，感覺良好和消費在其他人身上的聯系隨處可見。對大多數人來說，稀缺性提升了很多事情的快樂。并不是每個人都同意筆者在從安排更多的度假時間到減少稅收刺激美國購房者的觀點。但是讀完這本書，大多數的人會覺得它值得購買。
