2018.11catti2笔
Just as in America, in Britain too the story told by official statistics does not always match people’s lived experience. That is especially true in places like Newcastle, a former shipbuilding city, which lost out to competition from Asia in the 1970s and has seen living standards stagnate ever since. The U.S. economy, we are told, is booming. In the past two quarters, gross domestic product has risen by more than 3%, the stock market is soaring and unemployment is down to a 17-year low of 4.1%. Many people, though, don’t feel that upside.The perception gap is huge. Unemployment, more broadly measured, is higher than the headline number suggests because many people have simply given up looking for work or are working in part-time jobs when they want a full-time job. One of the prime faults of GDP is that it deals in averages and aggregates. Aggregates hide the nuances of inequality. And averages don’t tell us very much at all. Barring a few recessions, the U.S. economy has been on a near relentless upward path since the 1950s. Yet according to a Pew Research Center report, the average hourly wage for nonmanagement private-sector work was $20.67 in 2014, a measly $1.49 higher than in 1964, adjusted for inflation.
Studies suggest that people care more about relative than absolute wealth. If that is true, then as a minority have become richer, the majority have grown more miserable. In a famous experiment carried out at Emory University, two capuchin monkeys were put side by side and given cucumbers as a reward for performing a task. When one of the monkeys was given better-tasting grapes instead, the monkey receiving cucumbers became distraught, flinging its now despised reward at its trainer. The problems with using GDP as a barometer go beyond masking inequality. Invented in the U.S. in the 1930s, the figure is a child of the manufacturing age–good at measuring physical production but not the services that dominate modern economies. How would GDP measure the quality of mental-health care or the availability of day-care centers and parks in your area? Even the Belarusian economist who practically invented GDP, had doubts about his creation. He did not like the fact that it counted armaments and financial speculation as positive outputs. Above all, he said, GDP should never be confused with well-being. That suggests we need to find different ways of measuring our success. For the most part, we have become enraptured with a single measure that offers only limited information.
翻译：（My Version）
英国，就如同美国一般，政府的统计学家提出的数据经常对应不上人民的日常生活经验。在纽卡斯尔，这种现象更加真实，这个以前以造船业为主的城市，在1970年代被来自亚洲的竞争压倒导致人们的日常生产自此停滞不前。相反，美国的经济却是日益增长。在过去的半个世纪里，国民日常生产总值上涨了3%，股票市场一路高涨，未就业率直线下降4.1%达到17年来的新低。但是，人们并没有确切地感受到这一成果。认知差距是巨大的，未就业率，更广泛的统计的话，是远远高于统计学家的数据的。大多数人要么就不照工作，要么就是想找全职却无奈打着零工。GDP最主要的漏洞之处在于它调和了平均值和总值。人们生产总值中体现着不平等的细微差距，但是平均值却无法体现。1950年代到至今，美国的经济基本上是持直线上升的趋势，除了少数的经济衰退情况。根据一家皮尤研究中心的报告，2014年一名非管理层的私人工作的每小时平均工资是20.67美元，考虑通货膨胀的因素，对比1964年，每小时要高1.49美元。
研究显示人们更加的关心绝对所得的财富。如果是这样的话，只会有极少数人变得富裕，绝大多数人的生活都会很艰苦。埃默里大学有一个非常有名的研究实验，两只僧帽猴被放置在一起，当它们完成任务是会给予黄瓜作为奖励。当其中一只被给予更加美味的葡萄作为奖励的时候，收到黄瓜的那只就会变得脾气暴躁起来，狂扔东西，不搭理奖励和训练员。把GDP比作气压表的问题一直都存在于不平等的假面之下。在1930年代，美国把制造业比作小孩子，擅长日常生产，却不是支配当代经济的服务产业。GDP是如何统计当地居民精神治疗状况和日常小区公园清理的？就连GDP的创造者白俄罗斯的经济学家都对他的创作深感怀疑。他不喜欢将军事花销和经济推断的结果作为最终结果的现实。总之，他强调GDP永远也不应该与财富搅合不清。这就要求我们去尝试其他方法去衡量我的财富。大多数情况下，我们仍旧对于这个给我们提供不完整信息的测量方法感到欣喜若狂。
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