In Paris, pleasure boats ply the Seine River as people stroll along its banks on a summer day. The French have six weeks of vacation, free universities, top-notch public transport and arguably the world's best health care system. So who could be unhappy here? Yet in poll after poll, the French rank as some of the biggest malcontents in the Western world.
夏日，巴黎塞纳河上游船穿梭，河畔行人如织。法国人拥有六周的假期，免费的大学，一流的公共交通和无可争议的世界上顶尖的医疗系统。在这样的国度还能有谁不幸福呢？但是民意调查却表明，西方国家中，法国对现状不满的人民最多。

Parisian Bruno Fontaine is relaxing by the edge of the river. He says his countrymen don't realize how good they have it. But as world travelers, he says he and his wife do.
巴黎人布鲁诺·方丹正在河畔小憩。他说法国国人意识不到他们拥有着多好的生活，但是像他和他妻子环游世界过后，就能感觉到这点。

"Every time we come back to France and to Paris we can really enjoy how nice our country is," he says. Fontaine says in Paris, there is an incredible range of cultural opportunities, the food is incredible and life is amazingly fulfilling. "I can't imagine living in any other big city."
“每次我们回到法国，回到巴黎之后，就能感觉到这里的生活真的是很惬意。”方丹说在巴黎，你有机会去接触不同层面的文化，食物又美味，生活真是想不到的充实。“我想象不到其他任何一个像巴黎一样的大都市。”

So what is it that makes people happy?
那么，什么会让人觉得幸福呢？

Economists have long understood the importance of going beyond economic data to gauge the true well-being of a society. Gross Domestic Product alone cannot alone measure quality of life. The Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has come up with a tool to try to capture the intangible elements that make for a happy life.
长久以来，经济学家都知道不能局限于经济数据，要去衡量社会真正的幸福水平。仅凭国内生产总值是不能反映生活质量的。经济合作与发展组织（OECD，以下简称经合组织）巴黎分部正试图找出使人们生活幸福的无形因素。

The Better Life Index was launched three years ago. Now, with more than 4 million respondents in 180 countries, it is beginning to paint a picture of what people are looking for.
“幸福指数”在三年前开始施行。基于来自180个国家300多万名受调查者，它在绘制一幅关于人们真正在追求什么的蓝图。

Japanese users worry most about safety — understandable in the wake of the Fukoshima nuclear accident. Latin Americans strive for better education. The Better Life Index allows respondents to go online and rank 11 well-being indicators from income to environment, in order of importance to them, and then see how their country actually stacks up.
日本人大多担心安全问题，而在福岛核电站事故之后，这也是可以理解的；拉丁美洲人民则希望得到更好的教育。幸福指数使得受调查者可以在线上将十一个幸福指标根据重要性排序，从而调查者能发现网民所在国家在哪方面有欠缺。

Claire Cibois and her boyfriend Pierre are walking along the river. They've just been to a museum and are heading to the cinema. She says what makes life good is having some money, "not too much but enough to live on," she says. "And the free time to enjoy life."
克莱尔·西博思和男朋友皮埃尔正沿着河岸散步。他们刚刚从博物馆出来，正要去看电影。她说好生活是需要金钱支撑的，“也不用太多，足够生活就好，”克莱尔说，“还得有闲暇享受生活。”

Work-life balance is one of the nebulous concepts the OECD's Better Life Index hopes to quantify. Americans rank work-life balance as a top priority. But their country sits near the bottom in that category. OECD-head Angel Gurria says that should send a strong message to American politicians.
如何平衡生活和工作是经合组织幸福指数想量化的模糊概念之一。美国人将平衡生活和工作视为最重要的事情，但是美国却在这个指标下排在倒数。经合组织秘书长安吉尔·葛利亚指出，美国政客应该要重视这一点。

"This is a potentially enormously powerful policy instrument going beyond GDP, to inform governments of what people want and what keeps them awake at night," he says.
“除了国内生产总值（GDP）之外，这也是一项非常强大的政策工具，它能够告诉执政者人民究竟想要什么，这足以让他们晚上睡不着了。”

The OECD's Anthony Gooch, who helped design the index, says comparisons are key to its success."What is it that people love doing?" he asks. "Human beings are constantly peering over the fence. What is my neighbor doing? How is my neighbor performing?"
经合组织中帮助设计这项指数的安东尼·古奇认为人与人之间的攀比心是至关重要的。“人们喜欢做什么？”他问道，“人们总是愿意越过围墙眺望下隔壁——我的邻居干什么呢？我的邻居表现得如何？”

Gooch and his boss Gurria say The Better Life Index allows policy makers to compare and contrast how their county is performing and learn from how successful countries have handled the same issues.
古奇和葛利亚都认为，幸福指数使得决策者将自己的国家和其他国家进行对比，从而向成功的典范进行学习。

Gurria believes the Better Life Index could even improve democracy by connecting policies to people's lives. And the more people who go on line and participate, the sharper a tool it will become.
葛利亚认为幸福指数甚至可以通过将政策和人民生活衔接在一起从而提高民主。人们上线参与越多，它就会成为越有效的工具。

Back along the Seine River, Bruno Fontaine talks about his priorities."For me it's health," he says. "When you have health, everything is easier."
回到塞纳河边，布鲁诺·方丹谈到他自己心中最重要的，“是健康，”他说，“只要身体健康，做什么都容易些。”

Then he laughs: "Health and love!"
他想了想又大笑了起来，“健康，还有爱！”

Too bad the OECD doesn't have an index to measure that last one.
不过真是太遗憾了，经合组织并没有将后一个纳入指标。