Living standards have soared during the twentieth century, and economists expect them to continue rising in the decades ahead. Does that mean that we humans can look forward to increasing Happiness?
人们的生活水平在20世纪飞速提高，经济学家预计在未来的几十年里，人们的生活水平还会进一步提高。这是否意味着我们人类的日子有望越过越幸福呢？

Not necessarily, warns Richard A. Easterlin, an economist at the University of Southern California, in his new book, Growth Triumphant: The Twenty-first Century in Historical Perspective. Easterlin concedes that richer people are more likely to report themselves as being happy than poorer people are. But steady improvements in the American economy have not been accompanied by steady increases in people's self-assessments of their own Happiness. "There has been not improvement in average Happiness in the United States over almost a half century----a period in which real GDP per capita more than doubled," Easterlin reports.
未必如此，南加州大学一位经济学家理查德?A?伊斯特林在其新书《增长的胜利：从历史的视角展望21世纪》中如是告诫世人。他承认，一般来说，富人比穷人更有可能称自己是幸福的。然而，美国人对幸福感的自我评价并未伴随着美国经济稳步发展而有所提高。伊斯特林指出：“过去近半个世纪中，美国的实际人均国内生产总值增加了2倍多，而人们并未感到比以往更幸福。”

The explanation for this paradox may be that people become less satisfied over time with a given level of income. In Easterlin's word: "As incomes rise, the aspiration level does too, and the effect of this increase in aspirations is to vitiate the expected growth in Happiness due to higher income."
对于这种自相矛盾的现象也许可作如下解释，随着时间的推移，人们对一定的收入会越来越不满。用伊斯特林的话来说：“收入增加了，人们的期望值也相应提高了，期望值的提高会抵消收入提高所带来的预期有所增加的幸福感。

Money can buy Happiness, Easterlin seems to be saying, but only if one's amounts get bigger and other people aren't getting more. His analysis helps to explain sociologist Lee Rainwater's finding that Americans' perception of the income "necessary to get along" rose between 1950 and 1986 in the same proportion as actual per capita income. We feel rich if we have more than our neighbors, poor if we have less, and feeling relatively well off is equated with being happy.
伊斯特林似乎在说，金钱可以买来幸福，但这只有在自己金钱不断增多，而别人收入不变的情况才会如此。他的分析有助于人们理解社会学家李?雷恩沃特的调查结果----从1950年到1986年，在美国持收入“必须维持基本生活”观念的人随着实际人均收入的增加而同比增长。如果收入比邻居多，我们就会感到自己富有；反之，则觉得自己贫穷。由此可见，人们把幸福感与相对富裕程度等同起来。

Easterlin's findings, challenge psychologist Abraham Maslow's "hierarchy of wants" as a reliable guide to future human motivation.Maslow suggested that as people's basic material wants are satisfied they seek to achieve nonmaterial or spiritual goals. But Easterlin's evidence points to the persistence of materialism.
伊斯特林的调查结果向心理理学家亚伯拉罕?马斯洛的“需要等级体系”理论提出了挑战，该理论为人类未来的动机提供了可靠指南。马斯洛认为：一旦人们的基本物质需求得到满足后，就会转而追求更高层次的精神需求。但伊斯特林的论证却指出人类的物欲永无止境。