What’s the best country to live in?

翻译人员: Gia Hwang 校对人员: Yip Yan Yeung

What’s the best country in the world to live in?

世界上哪个国家最宜居？

Is it the one with the best food? The longest life expectancy?

是食物最好的国家吗？

还是寿命最长的国家？

The best weather?

抑或是气候最好的国家？

For the past 70 years, most governments have relied heavily on a single number

在过去的七十年里，

要回答这个问题，多数政府 主要依据一项数据，

to answer that question.

This number influences elections, the stock market, and government policy.

该数据会影响选举、 股市和政府政策，

But it was never intended for its current purpose;

但其目的从来不是当下；

and some would argue that the world is addicted to making it grow... forever.

有些人会争辩说世界沉迷于 让它增长，永远增长下去，

This number is called the Gross Domestic Product, or GDP,

这个数字被称为 国内生产总值，即 GDP ，

and it was invented by the economist Simon Kuznets in the 1930s,

二十世纪三十年代由经济学家 西蒙·库兹涅茨（Simon Kuznets）发明，

to try and gauge the size of an economy in a single, easy to understand number.

试图用一个易理解的单一数字 来衡量经济体的规模。

GDP is the total monetary value of everything a country

GDP 是一个国家在市场上生产 和销售的所有物品的货币总值，

produces and sells on the market.

To this day, GDP per capita,

时至今日，人均国内生产总值，

which is just the total GDP divided by the number of people living in that country,

即 GDP 总额除以该国居民人口数，

is widely seen as a measure of well-being.

被广泛视为衡量福祉的指标。

But GDP doesn’t actually say anything direct about well-being,

但 GDP 其实未直接反映福祉，

because it doesn't take into account what a country produces

因为它不包括一个国家生产了什么

or who has access to it.

或谁可以获得它。

A million dollars of weapons contributes the exact same amount to a country’s GDP

百万美元的武器 对一个国家 GDP 的贡献，

as a million dollars of vaccines or food.

与百万美元的疫苗或食品完全相同。

The value society derives from things like public school or firefighters

而公立学校或消防员的 社会价值并未计入 GDP，

isn’t counted in GDP at all, because those services aren’t sold on the market.

因为这些服务不在市场上出售。

And if a country has a lot of wealth,

如果一个国家拥有大量财富，

but most of it is controlled by relatively few people,

但大部分财富由相对较少的人控制，

GDP per capita gives a distorted picture of how much money a typical person has.

那么人均 GDP 就不能真实反映 一个普通人真正拥有多少钱。

Despite all that, for a long time,

尽管如此，长期以来，

higher GDP did correlate closely to a higher quality of life

较高的 GDP

确实与许多国家人民的 较高生活质量密切相关。

for people in many countries.

从 1945 年到 1970 年，

From 1945 to 1970, as GDP doubled, tripled or even quadrupled

一些西方经济体的 GDP 翻了一番、三倍、甚至四倍，

in some western economies,

people’s wages often grew proportionally.

人们的工资往往成比例地增长。

By the 1980s, this changed.

到了二十世纪八十年代， 这种情况发生了变化，

Countries continued to grow richer,

国家继续变得更加富裕，

but wages stopped keeping pace with GDP growth,

但工资不再随 GDP 同步增长，

or in some cases, even declined,

或者在某些情况下甚至下降，

and most of the benefits went to an ever-smaller percentage of the population.

而且大部分福利流向 越来越小的人口比例。

Still, the idea of capturing a nation’s well-being in a single number

尽管如此，用一个数字来衡量 一个国家福祉的想法

had powerful appeal.

仍然具有强大的吸引力。

In 1972, King Jigme Singye Wangchuk of Bhutan

1972 年，不丹国王吉格梅·辛格· 旺楚克（Jigme Singye Wangchuk）

came up with the idea of Gross National Happiness

提出了以国民幸福总值

as an alternative to Gross Domestic Product.

作为国内生产总值的替代方案。

Gross National Happiness is a metric that factors in matters

国民幸福总值是一个衡量

like health, education, strong communities, and living standards,

诸如健康、教育、强大社区 和生活水平等因素的指标，

having citizens answer questions like,

通过公民回答诸如以下问题得出：

“How happy do you think your family members are at the moment?”

“你认为你的家人现在有多幸福？”

“What is your knowledge of names of plants and wild animals in your area?”

“您对所在地区的植物 和野生动物名称了解多少？”

and “What type of day was yesterday?”

“昨天过得怎么样？ ”

The United Nations’ Human Development Index is a more widely used metric;

联合国的人类发展指数 是一个更广泛使用的指标，

it takes into account health and education,

它通过健康和教育，

as well as income per capita to estimate overall well-being.

以及人均收入来估计总体福祉。

Meanwhile, a metric called the Sustainable Development Index

而一项称为可持续发展指数的指标

factors in both well-being and the environmental burdens of economic growth,

则将福祉和经济增长对环境的影响 同时都考虑在内，

again, boiling all this down to a single number.

同样，将所有这些归结为一个数字。

Though no country has been able to meet

尽管没有一个国家

the basic needs of its people while

能够在充分可持续地利用资源的同时

also using resources fully sustainably,

满足其人民的基本需求，

Costa Rica currently comes the closest.

但哥斯达黎加目前是最接近的。

Over the past few decades,

在过去的几十年里，

it’s managed to grow its economy and improve living standards substantially

它成功地发展了经济， 并大幅提高了生活水平，

without drastically increasing its emissions.

而环保排放却没有大幅增加。

Other countries, like Colombia and Jordan,

其他国家，如哥伦比亚和约旦，

have made notable progress.

也取得了显著进展。

Costa Rica now has better well-being outcomes like life expectancy

目前，哥斯达黎加 比世界上一些最富裕的国家

than some of the world’s richest countries.

福祉更好，例如预期寿命。

Ultimately, there are limits to any approach that boils

归根结底，将一个国家的生活质量

the quality of life in a country down to a single number.

归结为一个数字的任何方法 都是有限度的。

Increasingly, experts favor a dashboard approach that lays out all the factors

专家们越来越青睐仪表板方法，

该方法罗列了单一数字 无法概括的所有因素。

a single number obscures.

This approach makes even more sense given that people have different priorities,

考虑到人们的优先事项不同，

这种方法更有意义，

and the answer to which country is best to live in

而“哪个国家最宜居”的答案 会取决于是谁提出的问题。

depends on who’s asking the question.

So what if that were you designing your countries well-being metric?

那么，若由你设计所在国家 或地区的福祉指标，你会怎么做？

What do you value, and what would you measure?

你会看重什么，你会去衡量什么？