第1500期:Can money make you happy?

What would make you happy? Really happy? A nice holiday, lazing on a tropical beach? Maybe a blowout meal with friends at a swanky restaurant? Or possibly splashing out on a pair of the latest designer jeans? All these pleasures cost money so does that mean we need lots of cash to feel good or does the old saying 'money can't buy happiness' still ring true?

什么会让你开心？非常开心？一个愉快的假期，在热带海滩上慵懒？也许在一家时髦的餐厅和朋友一起吃一顿丰盛的晚餐？或者可能会花在一条最新的名牌牛仔裤上？所有这些快乐都需要花钱，所以这是否意

This well-worn adage has been put to the test by scientists in Canada. They found that when used in the right way, money can bring us happiness. They discovered that when you use money to free up time, by paying someone to do your chores for example, you are happier. In an experiment, individuals reported greater higher life satisfaction if they used $40 to save time rather than spend it on material goods such as a new pair of shoes. But surprisingly, the researchers found that fewer than a third of individuals spent money to buy themselves time each month.

这句老生常谈的格言已经被加拿大的科学家们检验过了。他们发现，如果使用得当，金钱可以给我们带来快乐。他们发现，当你用钱来腾出时间，比如花钱雇人做家务，你会更快乐。在一项实验中，如果个人用 40 美元来节省时间，而不是花在诸如新鞋之类的物质商品上，那么他们的生活满意度会更高。但令人惊讶的是，研究人员发现，每个月只有不到三分之一的人花钱为自己争取时间。

In our hectic lives time is one thing we seem to be short of. People are reporting a 'time famine', where they get stressed over the daily demands on their time. Psychologists say stress over lack of time causes lower well-being and contributes to anxiety and insomnia. But in many countries now, as incomes are rising, there is an option to buy more time.

在我们忙碌的生活中，时间似乎是我们缺乏的一件事。人们正在报告“时间饥荒”，他们因每天对时间的需求而感到压力。心理学家说，缺乏时间带来的压力会导致幸福感下降，并导致焦虑和失眠。但现在在许多国家，随着收入的增加，人们可以选择购买更多时间。

This can be through hiring a cleaner to clean your house or outsourcing your ironing to someone else – giving us valuable extra hours to do the things we want to do. And in many forward-thinking companies, staff are given the opportunity to buy more time off or work flexibly.

这可以通过聘请清洁工来打扫你的房子或将熨烫工作外包给其他人——给我们宝贵的额外时间来做我们想做的事情。在许多有远见的公司中，员工有机会争取更多的休假或灵活工作。

Professor Dunn, who worked with colleagues at Harvard Business School, Maastricht University and Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, says that "money can in fact buy time. And it buys time pretty effectively… and so my take home message is, 'think about it, is there something you hate doing that fills you with dread and could you pay somebody else to do that for you?' If so, then science says that's a pretty good use of money.''

与哈佛商学院、马斯特里赫特大学和阿姆斯特丹自由大学的同事一起工作的邓恩教授说：“实际上，金钱可以买到时间。而且它可以非常有效地买到时间……所以我的带回家的信息是，‘想想看，是有什么你讨厌做的事让你充满恐惧，你能付钱给别人为你做吗？如果是这样，那么科学说这是对金钱的一种很好的利用。''

I would agree that buying more time makes me feel happier and more relaxed. But making time a priority over making money does come at a price; you have less cash to spend on the things you now have time to do. However there's another old saying that 'life is short and time is swift' so there's no time to waste and there's more to life than doing tedious housework!

我同意花更多的时间让我感觉更快乐、更放松。但是，让时间优先于赚钱确实是有代价的。你现在有时间做的事情上花费的现金更少了。然而，还有一句老话“生命短暂，时间匆匆”，所以没有时间可以浪费，生活除了做乏味的家务之外还有更多！

词汇表

laze 享受，消磨（时光）
blowout 大餐
swanky 奢华时髦的
splash out 花大笔钱
money can't buy happiness 金钱买不到幸福
adage 格言，谚语
chore 日常琐碎的工作
material goods 物质商品
hectic 忙碌的
time famine “时间荒”
insomnia 失眠
income 收入
hire 雇用
outsource 将…交给他人处理
forward-thinking 前瞻性的
effectively 有效地
dread 忧虑
priority 优先考虑的事
come at a price 要付出很高的代价
life is short and time is swift 生命短暂，时光飞逝
tedious 单调乏味的