2025年06月六级第2套仔细阅读 Passage 2 原文翻译及答案解析

GDP growth is not a good indicator of how well a country is performing, and should not be the primary goal of governments. Unlimited growth is not sustainable, and economic thinking is moving toward the idea that we should aim for sustainability in our economic models. But while a sustainable economy is vital to our future, it is a means to an end, not an end in itself.

GDP增长不是一个国家表现的良好指标，不应成为政府的首要目标。无限增长不可持续，经济思维正转向我们应以可持续性为目标构建经济模型。但尽管可持续经济对我们未来至关重要，它只是达到目的的手段，而非目的本身。

The idea that governments should focus on happiness has its critics. There are concerns about how happiness can be measured. Is happiness not a fleeting and subjective psychological state? Don't different people experience different levels of happiness? Even on the broadest interpretation of happiness as prosperity or life satisfaction, people want different things.

政府应关注幸福这一观点有其批评者。人们担忧如何测量幸福。幸福难道不是一种转瞬即逝、主观的心理状态吗？不同的人不是体验不同层次的幸福吗？即使将幸福最广泛地解释为繁荣或生活满意度，人们想要的东西也各不相同。

Of course, governments cannot impose life satisfaction on citizens. But our happiness relies on collaborative efforts as a society. A government's obligation lies in creating conditions that promote prosperity. And there is good reason to suppose that such conditions exist, are globally applicable, and are discoverable through research.

当然，政府不能将生活满意度强加于公民。但我们的幸福依赖于社会的合作努力。政府的职责在于创造促进繁荣的条件。而且有充分理由相信这样的条件存在，具有全球适用性，并且可以通过研究发现。

In a recently published article, philosopher Julian Baggini suggests we should focus on "real wealth" for citizens, which does not depend on GDP growth. Access is key: people do not need to own, but rather access things that enable them to live well. Technological advances and changes in social behavior enable us to make more efficient use of the assets that we already have. And focusing on access to the resources people need to live better lives could help reduce inequality.

在最近发表的一篇文章中，哲学家朱利安·巴吉尼建议我们应关注公民的“真实财富”，这不依赖于GDP增长。关键在于获取：人们不需要拥有，而是获取能让他们生活得好的事物。技术进步和社会行为的变化使我们能够更有效地利用现有资产。关注人们过上更好生活所需资源的获取，有助于减少不平等。

As far as it goes, this has much in common with proposals tabled by "happiness advocates." But it sets the bar far too low for what governments can and should be doing for their citizens.

就目前而言，这与“幸福倡导者”提出的建议有许多共同之处。但它为政府能够且应该为公民做的事情设定了过低的标准。

For example, it's not clear how a "real wealth" economy would remedy the epidemic of mental illness that plagues our society. In Western countries, at least, poor mental health is more detrimental to wellbeing than poverty. Over and above a vastly improved provision of therapeutic mental healthcare, there are preventative measures for improving mental health that governments could and should adopt. The WHO recommends establishing institutions that facilitate community participation - educational programs and interventions that provide skills for promoting mental wellbeing. It says a lot, however, that the WHO feels the need to appeal to the economic benefits of improving mental health to persuade governments that the cost of taking proposed measures is justified. As long as the economy is their priority, governments need go no further than ensuring citizens' continued productivity.

例如，尚不清楚“真实财富”经济将如何治愈困扰我们社会的精神疾病流行问题。至少在西方国家，心理健康不良对福祉的危害比贫困更大。除了大幅改善治疗性心理医疗服务的提供外，政府可以且应该采取预防措施来改善心理健康。世界卫生组织建议建立促进社区参与的机构——提供促进心理福祉技能的教育项目和干预措施。然而，世界卫生组织感到有必要诉诸改善心理健康的经济利益，来说服政府采取建议措施的成本是合理的，这说明了很多问题。只要经济仍是政府的优先事项，他们只需确保公民的持续生产力即可。

To demand that governments set the "happiness of citizens" as their highest priority is to demand that they view citizens as ends in themselves.

要求政府将“公民的幸福”作为最高优先事项，就是要求他们将公民视为目的本身。