How Happy is Britain? 英国人快乐吗？
[audio]http://file.24en.com/bbc/tae/assets_8551255/tae_302_how_happy_is_britain_110119_tae_302_how_happy_is_britain_audio_au_bb.mp3[/audio]What makes you happy?
That's a question British Prime Minister David Cameron is asking the nation in a survey this year, as part of a [b]drive[/b] to improve Britons' lives beyond pure [b]financial gain[/b].
As the [b]global recession[/b] continues, Mr Cameron says he is seeking a better [b]measure of progress[/b] than GDP alone. He claims economic studies often focus too much on standard of life rather than quality of life.
The problem is that assessing happiness is a [b]slippery subject[/b]. It is easier to measure something [b]concrete[/b] like a person's income than a [b]subjective[/b], less [b]tangible[/b] factor like [b]wellbeing[/b].[img=226,170]http://www.24en.com/d/file/bbc/bbc2/2011-01-20/26a3ff30bd74f0747e5af41f668d7cfb.jpg[/img] [p=30, 2, left]Is it possible to measure happiness?Critics say the £2m (20m yuan) scheme will not produce any meaningful results. Others suggest it is [b]unwise[/b] to carry out a survey into the nation's happiness just as the government launches the biggest [b]public spending cuts[/b] in decades.
Mr Cameron himself admits that it is easy to [b]brand[/b] his scheme "[b]woolly[/b]" and "impractical", but it is not without [b]precedent[/b].
Canada has an Index of Wellbeing which looks at how things like money and education affect health and the [b]sense of community[/b]. And the Kingdom of Bhutan has used its index of Gross National Happiness (GNH) since the early 1970s as a tool to help [b]policy-making[/b].
So what kind of answers is he likely to get? While the full survey begins later this year, respondents to an [b]initial consultation[/b] have already listed their top priorities.
[b]Job security[/b], good health and relationships with family members are what matter most to people in the UK, according to the findings. In fact, having a job was listed as more important than being paid a high salary.
So perhaps there is truth in the [b]old adage[/b] that 'money can't buy happiness'. An idea David Cameron may [b]find [url=http://d.24en.com/s/?wd=solace][color=#006699]solace[/color][/url][/b] in as he tries to find a way out of the recession.[/p]
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