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Nor does economic progress broadly defined correspond to human progress.
广义的经济进步也并不与人类的进步相一致。
GDP does not measure welfare; and wealth does not equal happiness.
国内生产总值并不能衡量福祉；财富也不等于幸福。
Rich countries are, by and large, happier than poor ones;
一般来说，富裕国家的人们比贫穷国家的人们幸福一些；
but among developed-world countries, there is only a weak correlation between happiness and GDP
但在发达国家里，幸福和国内生产总值只有微弱的联系。
And, although wealth has been soaring over the past half a century, happiness, measured by national surveys, has hardly budged.
况且，虽然在过去半个世纪里财富一直在飞速增长，但是，根据各国的调查，幸福感几乎原地未动。
This is probably largely because of status-consciousness.
这很可能多半是由人们对地位的意识决定的。
It is good to go up in the world, but much less so if everyone around you is going up in it too.
在世界上能出人头地的感觉是很好的，但如果你身边的每个人也都出人头地了，这种感觉就会差很多。
Once they have filled up their bellies and put a roof over their heads, people want more of what we call "positional goods."
一旦食可果腹，居有定所，人们 就想要更多所谓的“能够显示身份、地位的商品”了。
Only one person can be the richest tycoon.
世界上只能有一个人是最富有的大亨。
As wealth grows, the competition for such status only becomes more intense.
随着财富的增加，争夺这个地位的竞争只会变得更加激烈。
