Can money make you happy?
金钱能买来幸福吗？
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?
什么能让你开心？真的开心吗？去热带海滩度个完美的假期？还是和朋友们在豪华餐厅大吃一顿？亦或是花大价钱买一条最新款的牛仔裤？所有这些快乐都要建立在金钱的基础之上，所以这意味着要想快乐就要花大价钱吗？“金钱买不到幸福”这句老话还有道理吗？
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.
加拿大的科学家们对这句著名的谚语开展了一项研究。研究发现，如果使用得当，金钱就能带给我们快乐。他们发现，当我们通过金钱能获取更多时间的时候就会变的更开心，比如雇人做家务。某项实验表明，人们通过花钱节省时间的生活满意度要高于花钱购买诸如鞋子这类有形商品。但令人惊讶的是，研究者们发现，每个月花钱省时间的人少于三分之一。
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.
在忙碌的生活中，时间是我们紧缺的东西。人们都出现了“时间荒”，意思是对每天需要做的事应接不暇。心理学家指出，时间短缺带来的压力会导致幸福感下降，带来焦虑和失眠。但随着收入增长，在很多国家都可以花钱买时间。
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.
这可以通过雇佣实现。你可以雇佣清洁工打扫房子，或者雇佣人帮忙熨烫衣服——这样我们就能多省下宝贵的几个小时去做我们想做的事。很多具有前瞻性的公司都给员工提供更多的休息时间或者弹性工作的机会。
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.''
哈佛大学商学院、马斯特里赫特大学以及阿姆斯特丹自由大学的Dunn教授指出：“实际上，金钱是可以买到时间的。而且还很有效果...所以，我想说的是‘想想看有哪些你讨厌做但又占用很多时间的事，可以雇用他人帮助自己去完成吗？’如果可以，那就是把金钱使用得当了。”
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!
我同意买更多的时间能让我更开心、更放松，但把时间看得比挣钱还重要是需要付出代价的：你没有钱去做你现在有时间做的事。但还有一句老话是这么说的：“人生时光如白驹过隙”，所以时间经不起浪费，生活中除了无聊的家务还有很多事可做！
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