来源：《新科学家》
原文刊登日期：2022年1月19日
“Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” These are three unalienable rights emphasised by the US Declaration of Independence as being the duty of their leaders to protect and secure.
“生命、自由和对幸福的追求。”这是美国《独立宣言》强调的三项不可剥夺的权利，他们的领导人有责任保护和保障这三项权利。
The third one gives perhaps most pause for thought. What should governments – and all of us – be doing to maximise societal and personal happiness? Indeed, what even defines happiness?
第三项可能是最值得思考的。政府——以及我们所有人——应该做些什么来最大化社会和个人幸福？事实上，幸福的定义是什么？
Politicans and philosophers have argued over the apparent contradictions and conflicts that such questions throw up for centuries. Meanwhile, a simple equivalence has come to be made across the world. Many believe that happiness comes with having a bigger cake and eating it, so only economic growth and the pursuit of material progress can provide happiness.
几个世纪以来，政治家和哲学家就这些问题所引发的明显矛盾和冲突展开了争论。与此同时，一个简单的等价物在世界各地出现。许多人相信，幸福来自于拥有一个更大的蛋糕并吃掉它，因此只有经济增长和追求物质进步才能带来幸福。
Having basic material needs such as food, shelter and clothing covered will, of course, always be important to our well-being. Even asking questions about the nature of happiness may imply being in the happy situation of relative prosperity.
当然，满足基本的物质需求，如衣食住行，对我们的幸福总是很重要的。甚至问一些关于幸福本质的问题也可能意味着处于相对繁荣的快乐状态。
Happiness is a vague concept, though, and care should be taken not to over-interpret results from the relatively young discipline of research on the subject. But in higher-income parts of the world, at least, the greatest levels of satisfaction seem to occur in countries such as Finland with mediocre levels of economic growth. Higher-growth countries such as the US fare worse.
然而，幸福是一个模糊的概念，应该注意不要过度解释这个相对年轻的学科在这个问题上的研究结果。但至少在世界上收入较高的地区，经济增长水平平平的国家（如芬兰）的满意度似乎最高。美国等高增长国家的情况更糟。
You need only look to the challenges of climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution to see how growth-fuelled economic models can work against long-term happiness. The covid-19 pandemic has also led many people to reassess what really contributes to their well-being.
你只需要看看气候变化、生物多样性丧失和污染带来的挑战，就能明白以增长为动力的经济模式如何不利于长期幸福。新冠大流行还促使许多人重新评估什么才是真正有助于他们幸福的因素。
Security, community, relationships, a clean environment and connection with nature, the ability to bring up children stress-free, and above all equality: these are things that we know correlate with happiness for most of us. Countries that care for their own success should find in that another reason not to blindly continue with business-as-usual, and seek to build back not just better, but happier.
安全、友谊、人际关系、干净的环境、与自然的联系、无压力地抚养孩子的能力，最重要的是平等：我们知道，对我们大多数人来说，这些都与幸福相关。关心自身成功的国家应该从中找到另一个理由，不要盲目地继续一切照旧，寻求重建，不仅仅是更好，而是更幸福。