美國人是怎么消磨時(shí)光的

Americans enjoy some of the highest standards of living in the world. Although the United States trails other countries in such significant measures of health and wellbeing as infant mortality and life expectancy, the world generally respects—even envies—the quality of life enjoyed by most Americans.

Americans do work hard. Although the number of hours of nonwork time available to Americans has not changed significantly since the 1970s, public opinion surveys consistently report that Americans believe they have less free time today than in the past. Workers who participated in the Shell Poll, a study conducted by Shell Oil Company in 2000, indicated that if given a choice between an extra day off from work or an extra day's wages every two weeks, they preferred more time off by a margin of 58% to 40%. For workers aged thirty-five to sixty-four, 67% indicated that they would rather have more time off.

Working parents report the least free time. According to the Shell Poll, only 48% of mothers believe they have enough personal leisure time. This reflects a dramatic decline from a Gallup survey conducted in 1963, when 70% of mothers were happy with their free time. Almost three-quarters of working mothers reported to Shell that on Sunday nights, after doing household chores and running errands on weekends, they do not feel rested and ready for a new work week.

In the free time Americans do have, they are sleeping less. According to Sleep in America, a survey published in 2002 by the nonprofit National Sleep Foundation, 68% of poll respondents admitted getting less than eight hours' sleep on weeknights. Nearly a quarter of those surveyed believed they were not getting the minimum amount needed to avoid feelings of drowsiness during the day.

美國人喜歡世界上的一些高標(biāo)準(zhǔn)的生活質(zhì)量。盡管美國在嬰兒死亡率和平均壽命等一些重要的健康和福利等方面的措施落后于其他國家，總的來說人們還是非常關(guān)心甚至是嫉妒大部分美國人享受高質(zhì)量的生活。

美國人的確工作很勤奮。盡管自1970年以來，美國人現(xiàn)有的空閑時(shí)間并沒有太大的改變，但是公眾輿論調(diào)查顯示，美國人認(rèn)為他們現(xiàn)在的空閑時(shí)間比過去有所減少。參加2000年殼牌石油公司組織的殼牌民意測驗(yàn)的工人，表示如果在每兩周多一天休假的時(shí)間和每兩周多一天的工資做出選擇，他們中40%-58%的人希望多一天假期。對于35歲到64歲的年齡段，67%工人認(rèn)為他們寧愿有更多的休息時(shí)間。雙職工的家長感覺空閑時(shí)間最少。根據(jù)殼牌民意調(diào)差，只有48%的的母親認(rèn)為她們有足夠的休閑的時(shí)間。這與1963年的蓋洛普調(diào)查相比，比例大幅度下降，那時(shí)70%的母親對她們的空閑時(shí)間感到滿意。將近四分之三的母親反應(yīng)周日的晚上當(dāng)她們做完家務(wù)瑣事和處理好周末的事情以后并沒有感覺到休息，并且還要為新的一周做準(zhǔn)備。

美國人確實(shí)有空閑的時(shí)間，他們睡覺時(shí)間很少。根據(jù)《美國睡眠》調(diào)查顯示，這個結(jié)果是由非營利性機(jī)構(gòu)美國睡眠協(xié)會在2002年發(fā)布，68%的調(diào)查民眾承認(rèn)每晚的睡眠時(shí)間少于八個小時(shí)。將近四分之一的被調(diào)查者認(rèn)為他們在白天沒有多少人能夠避免的產(chǎn)生睡意。