如果我們衡量的東西是錯的，那我們的做法也是錯的
諾貝爾獲獎經(jīng)濟(jì)學(xué)家約瑟夫·斯蒂格利茨希望國內(nèi)生產(chǎn)總值(GDP)像金字塔尺和阿拉伯里這些古代單位一樣被淘汰。
"The world is facing three existential crises: a climate crisis, an inequality crisis and a crisis in democracy," he writes. "Yet the accepted ways by which we measure economic performance give absolutely no hint that we might be facing a problem."
他寫道：“世界正面臨三個生存危機(jī)：氣候危機(jī)、不平等危機(jī)和民主危機(jī)。然而我們衡量經(jīng)濟(jì)表現(xiàn)的公認(rèn)方法完全沒有示意我們可能遇到了問題。”
He's right! In the United States, GDP is on the upswing, yet Los Angeles burns regularly, and the U.S. president faces impeachment.
他說得對!美國GDP增長迅速，但洛杉磯頻繁起火，美國總統(tǒng)又面臨彈劾。
The problem, he says, is that politicians see positive GDP figures and continue with the status quo. GDP gives no hint of environmental degradation or resource depletion, nor inequality, middle-class suffering, or lower standards of living.
他說問題就在于政治家們看到了積極的GDP數(shù)據(jù)，并繼續(xù)保持現(xiàn)狀。GDP并未表明環(huán)境惡化或資源枯竭，也沒體現(xiàn)不平等、中產(chǎn)階級的痛苦或生活水平的降低。
"If growth is not sustainable because we are destroying the environment and using up scarce natural resources our statistics should warn us," he says. "It is clear that something is fundamentally wrong with the way we assess economic performance and social performance." Preach.
他說：“如果經(jīng)濟(jì)增長不可持續(xù)是因為我們正在破壞環(huán)境并耗盡稀缺的自然資源，統(tǒng)計數(shù)據(jù)應(yīng)該向我們發(fā)出警告。很明顯我們衡量經(jīng)濟(jì)表現(xiàn)和社會表現(xiàn)的方法從根本上就是錯的。”
His new book, Measuring What Counts: The Global Movement for Well-Being, cowritten with French e-conomists Jean-Paul Fitoussi and Martine Durand, provides a blueprint for how countries can use more appropriate metrics that account for details such as sustainability and—imagine!—how people feel about their lives.
他的新書《Measuring What Counts: The Global Movement for Well-Being》是和法國經(jīng)濟(jì)學(xué)家Jean-Paul Fitoussi、Martine Durand合著的，這本書為各國如何使用更合理的指標(biāo)提供了藍(lán)圖，要考慮到各種細(xì)節(jié)，如可持續(xù)性和人們的幸福指數(shù)。
This all began a decade ago, when Nicolas Sarkozy, then the president of France, asked Stiglitz and fellow Nobel winner Amartya Sen, along with Fitoussi, to set up a commission studying GDP. They published their early deliberations in a book called Mismeasuring Our Lives.
這一切從十年前就已經(jīng)開始了，后來成為法國總統(tǒng)的尼古拉·薩科齊當(dāng)時讓斯蒂格利茨和同樣獲得諾貝爾獎的Amartya Sen，以及Fitoussi共同設(shè)立研究GDP的委員會，他們在《Mismeasuring Our Lives》一書中給出了早期的審議意見。
From an e-conomist's perspective, metrics are the key to everything. "If we measure the wrong thing, we will do the wrong thing," writes Stiglitz.
從經(jīng)濟(jì)學(xué)家的角度來看指標(biāo)是最重要的。斯蒂格利茨寫道：“如果我們衡量的東西是錯的，那我們的做法也是錯的。”
