You want to be happy. I'm going to make this assumption, and I think I'm in pretty smart company to do so. Socrates once asked his students, "Do not all men desire happiness?" A student answered him, "There is no one who does not."

    If Socrates was right, isn't it reasonable to assume that a decent nation will, at minimum, create the conditions in which its citizens can best pursue happiness? In the Declaration of Independence, the Founders didn't treat happiness as some fuzzy concept; they believed that people wanted happiness and had the right to pursue it. Along with life and liberty, happiness was the connection between the Creator and our nation's destiny, and the ability of its citizens to pursue and achieve happiness was a measure of the effectiveness and morality of the state.

    What matters most for happiness is not having a lot of things but having healthy values.

    But today's leaders and policymakers seem to have forgotten this. To hear politicians talk about gross domestic product, health-care reform, and Social Security, you'd think that this nation's Founding Fathers held as self-evident that we are endowed by our Creator with the ability to purchase new, high-quality consumer durables each and every year, or to enjoy healthy economic growth with low inflation and full employment. The Founders didn't talk about these matters, not because they're unimportant, but because they believed happiness went deeper.

    As a professor of business and government policy, I've long been interested in the pursuit of happiness as a national concept. According to hundreds of reliable surveys of thousands of people across the land, happy people increase our prosperity and strengthen our communities. They make better citizens -- and better citizens are vital to making our nation healthy and strong. Happiness, in other words, is important for America. So when I chanced upon data a couple of years ago saying that certain Americans were living in a manner that facilitated happiness -- while others were not -- I jumped on it.

    I wanted to be able to articulate which personal lifestyles and public policies would make us the happiest nation possible. I also wanted to know which of my own values, learned during my childhood in Seattle and practiced during my career as a university professor, were the most conducive to happiness. I had always thought that marching to the beat of my own drummer and making up my own values as I went along were the right things to do, and that traditional values, to put it bluntly, were for suckers.

    Turns out that I was in for some surprises.

    First, just what is happiness? Most researchers agree that it involves an assessment of the good and bad in our lives. It's the emotional balance sheet we keep that allows us to say honestly whether we're living a happy life, in spite of bad things now and then.

    You might suspect that Americans are getting happier all the time. After all, many （though clearly not all） are getting richer, and this should make them better able and equipped to follow their dreams. On the other hand, there's a lot of talk about the good old days, when kids could play outside without any worry about being kidnapped. And there's a great deal of stress in this country right now, due to financial concerns, negative workplace environments, and chronic health problems, among other pressing issues.

    But average happiness levels in America have stayed largely constant for many years. In 1972, 30 percent of the population said they were very happy with their lives, according to the National Opinion Research Center's General Social Survey. In 1982, 31 percent said so, and in 2006, 31 percent said so as well. The percentage saying they were not too happy was similarly constant, generally hovering around 13 percent.

    The factors that add up to a happy life for most people are not what we typically hear about. Things like winning the lottery, getting liposuction, and earning a master's degree don't make people happy over the long haul. Rather, the key to happiness, and the difference between happy and unhappy Americans, is a life that reflects values and practices like faith, hard work, marriage, charity, and freedom.

    Happiness Predictor 1: Faith

    Roughly 85 percent of Americans identify with a religion, and about a third of Americans attend a house of worship every week or more. These statistics have changed relatively little over the decades. By international standards, America's level of religious practice is exceptionally high. In Holland, for example, just 9 percent of the population attends church on a regular basis; in France, it's 7 percent; in Latvia, 3 percent.

    In general, religious Americans （those who attend a place of worship almost every week or more） are happier than those who rarely or never attend. In 2004 the General Social Survey found that 43 percent of religious folks said they were very happy with their lives, compared with 23 percent of secularists. Religious people were a third more likely than secularists to say they're optimistic about the future. And secularists were nearly twice as likely as religious people to say "I'm inclined to feel I'm a failure."

    The connection between faith and happiness holds regardless of one's religion. All nonpartisan surveys on the subject have found that Christians （Protestants, Catholics, Mormons, and others） and Jews, as well as members of many other religious traditions, are far more likely than secularists to say they're happy. It also doesn't matter if we measure religious practice in ways other than attendance at worship services. In 2004, 36 percent of people who prayed every day said they were very happy, versus 21 percent of people who never prayed.

    Of course, not every religious person is happy; neither is every secularist unhappy. Nonetheless, it's clear that faith is a common value among happy Americans.

    Happiness Predictor 2: Work

    If you hit the lottery today, would you quit your job? If you're like most Americans, you probably wouldn't. When more than 1,000 people across the country were asked in 2002, "If you were to get enough money to live comfortably for the rest of your life, would you stop working?" fewer than a third of the respondents answered yes.

    Contrary to widely held opinion, most Americans like or even love their work. In 2002 an amazing 89 percent of workers said they were very satisfied or somewhat satisfied with their jobs. This isn't true just for those with high-paying, highly skilled jobs but for all workers across the board. And the percentage is almost exactly the same among those with and without college degrees and among those working for private companies, nonprofit organizations, and the government.

    For most Americans, job satisfaction is nearly equivalent to life satisfaction. Among those people who say they are very happy in their lives, 95 percent are also satisfied with their jobs. Furthermore, job satisfaction would seem to be causing overall happiness, not the other way around.

    The bottom line here: If we want to be happy, we need to work. And that's advice worth sharing with our kids as well.

    Happiness Predictor 3: Marriage & Family

    Matrimony has taken a lot of hits since the 1960s. It's been said to hold many people, especially women, back from their full potential to be happy. Don't believe it.

    In 2004, 42 percent of married Americans said they were very happy. Just 23 percent of never-married people said this. The happiness numbers were even lower for other groups: Only 20 percent of those who were widowed, 17 percent of those who were divorced, and 11 percent of those who were separated but not divorced said they were happy. Overall, married people were six times more likely to say that they were very happy than to report that they were not too happy. And generally speaking, married women say they're happy more often than married men.

    Marriage isn't just associated with happiness -- it brings happiness, at least for a lot of us. One 2003 study that followed 24,000 people for more than a decade documented a significant increase in happiness after people married. For some, the happiness increase wore off in a few years, and they ended up back at their premarriage happiness levels. But for others, it lasted as long as a lifetime.

    What about having kids? While children, on their own, don't appear to raise the happiness level （they actually tend to slightly lower the happiness of a marriage）, studies suggest that children are almost always part of an overall lifestyle of happiness, which is likely to include such things as marriage and religion. Consider this: While 50 percent of married people of faith who have children consider themselves to be very happy, only 17 percent of nonreligious, unmarried people without kids feel the same way.

    We've all heard that money doesn't buy happiness, and that's certainly true. But there is one way to get it: Give money away.

    The evidence is clear that gifts to charitable organizations and other worthy causes bring substantial life satisfaction to the givers. If you want $50 in authentic happiness today, just donate it to a favorite charity.

    People who give money to charity are 43 percent more likely than nongivers to say they're very happy. Volunteers are 42 percent more likely to be very happy than nonvolunteers. It doesn't matter whether the gifts of money go to churches or symphony orchestras; religious giving and secular giving leave people equally happy, and far happier than people who don't give. Even donating blood, an especially personal kind of giving, improves our attitude.

    In essence, the more people give, the happier they get.

    Happiness Predictor 4: Freedom

    The Founders listed liberty right up there with the pursuit of happiness as an objective that merited a struggle for our national independence. In fact, freedom and happiness are intimately related: People who consider themselves free are a lot happier than those who don't. In 2000 the General Social Survey revealed that people who personally feel "completely free" or "very free" were twice as likely as those who don't to say they're very happy about their lives.

    Not all types of freedom are the same in terms of happiness, however. Researchers have shown that economic freedom brings happiness, as does political and religious freedom. On the other hand, moral freedom -- a lack of constraints on behavior -- does not. People who feel they have unlimited moral choices in their lives when it comes to matters of sex or drugs, for example, tend to be unhappier than those who do not feel they have so many choices in life.

    Americans appear to understand this quite well. When pollsters asked voters in the 2004 Presidential election what the most important issue facing America was, the issue voters chose above all others was "moral values." This beat out the economy, terrorism, the Iraq war, education, and health care as people's primary concern. Pundits and politicians would certainly like us to think otherwise, and critics scoffed at the conclusion, interpreting it as evidence that ordinary Americans were out of touch. But moral values are critical to Americans. This suggests that, as a people, we do best by protecting our political and economic freedoms and guarding against a culture that sanctions licentiousness.

    Lessons for America

    The data tell us that what matters most for happiness is not having a lot of things but having healthy values. Without these values, our jobs and our economy will bring us soulless toil and joyless riches. Our education will teach us nothing. There will be no reason to fight -- or to make peace, for that matter -- to protect our way of life. Our health-care system will keep us healthier, but what's the point of good health without a happy life to enjoy?

    The facts can help remind us of what we should be paying attention to, as individuals and as families, if we want to be happy. There's also an important message here for public policy and politics. We must hold our leaders accountable for the facts on happiness and refuse to take it lightly when politicians abridge the values of faith, work, family, charity, and freedom.

    Candidates running for office should be grilled about happiness in debates and by the press, and their answers should determine our votes.

    Our happiness is simply too important to us -- and to America -- to do anything less.

    The American Way

    Independence is happiness.

    Susan B. Anthony

    All you need for happiness is a good gun, a good horse, and a good wife.

    Daniel Boone

    That is happiness: to be dissolved into something complete and great.

    Willa Cather

    There is joy in work. There is no happiness except in the realization that we have accomplished something.

    Henry Ford

    Being passionate about something is the key to success. But using that passion to help others is the key to happiness.

    Arnold Schwarzenegger

    Since you get more joy out of giving joy to others, you should put a good deal of thought into the happiness you are able to give.

    Eleanor Roosevelt

    Happiness and moral duty are inseparably connected.

    George Washington

    Happiness is a by-product of a well-lived life, and it is achieved through the pursuit of endeavors that are meaningful and sometimes painful. Mark O'Connell in "The Marriage Benefit"

    I'm happy if everybody else is.

    你想要快乐起来。作为这个智囊团里的一员，我可以做出这样的假设。苏格拉底曾有一次问他的学生："并不是所有的人都渴望幸福吧？"一名学生答道："幸福，是所有人都渴望的。"

    如果苏格拉底是正确的，对一个在最低限度下都可以为人民创造追求幸福条件的国家做出这样的假设是不是不够合理呢？在宣布独立后，领袖们并没有将幸福作为模糊的理念来执行，他们认为人们都需要幸福并有权利去追求它。随着生活与自由的前进脚步，幸福不仅成为造物者与国家命运之间联系的纽带，同时也是在用国民追求与获得幸福的能力作为对这个国家道德效力的衡量标准。

    与幸福关系最为密切的是拥有健康的价值观而非充足的物质生活。

    但似乎今天的领导者与决策者都遗忘了这一点。听着政治家们谈论着国内生产总值、保健改革和社会安全，你会想到国家的开国元勋坚持着不言自明的传统，造物者赋予我们每年购买崭新且高级物品的能力，或是享有健康的经济增长所带来的低通货膨胀率和高就业率。创立者们并没有谈论到这些问题，并非它们不重要，而是因为他们认为幸福存在于更深处。

    作为一名商业与政府政策的教授，长期以来我对追求幸福这一国家理念相当感兴趣。根据对这片土地上几千人的数以百计值得信赖的调查显示，幸福的人们促进了繁荣发展并加强了社会团结。他们造就了更好的公民，而更好的公民对于使国家变得健康强大起来是相当重要的。 幸福，换句话说对于美国是很关键的。所以当我几年前偶然看到一份数据上说一些美国人以追求幸福的方式生活--然而另外一些人却没有--我跳过这一段了。

    我希望能明确表达出什么样的个人生活方式与公共政策可以尽可能让我们的国家变得更为幸福。我也想知道自己是抱有什么样的价值观，童年在西雅图学习并作为一名大学教授经营这自己的职业生涯，这都是追求幸福最有利的条件。我总是认为跟着自己鼓声的节拍向前走并与此同时形成自己一套价值观是正确的做法，而那些传统的价值观，说的直接点，都是留给失败者的。

    原来有些惊喜等着我。

    首先，什么是幸福？大多数研究人员赞成它包含对生活中好与坏的评断。我们拥有的这张情感平衡单允许我们诚实地讲出自己的生活是否幸福，即使不时会发生些糟糕的事情。

    也许你一直对美国人变得越来越快乐感到怀疑。毕竟，许多人（显然不会是所有人）越来越富有，这样应该可以让他们更有能力去追求梦想并付之于行动。在另一方面，当想到不需要担心在屋外玩耍的孩子们被绑架时，对美好旧时光的讨论也逐渐多了起来。而由于经济金融方面的忧虑，消极的工作环境和慢性健康问题等其它紧急事件，这个国家已承受了太多的压力。

    但美国的平均幸福水平多数还是维持了多年。据国家民意研究中心的普及社会调查显示在 1972年，30%的人口表示他们的生活很幸福。1982年，31%的人口这样说，到了2006年，仍然有31%的人这么说。而表示他们并不够幸福的人口百分数同样保持着大概13%左右。

    人们通常听说的那些能为幸福生活添加筹码的因素并非如此。像是中彩票，做吸脂手术和获得硕士学位这些事都不能给人长期的幸福。幸福的美国人与不幸福的美国人之间的区别与关键点，反而是在于信仰、努力工作、婚姻、慈善事业和自由这些可以反映价值观和实践的生活片段。

    幸福预言一：信仰

    粗略估计有85%的美国人拥有某一种信仰，并且大约三分之一的美国人每周或更频繁地去教堂。这些数据在这十年里产生相对较小的改变。根据国际标准，美国宗教实践水平是相当高的。例如，在荷兰只有9%的人口定期地去教堂；法国为7%;拉脱维亚只有3%.

    一般来说，虔诚的美国人（那些几乎每周或更频繁地去教堂的人）比那些很少甚至不去教堂的人更为幸福。2004年的普及社会调查显示，分别有43%的虔诚民众和23%的现实主义者表示他们过着很幸福的生活。宗教信仰者比现实主义者多出可能有超过三分之一的人表示他们对未来十分乐观。而可能大约比宗教信仰者多出两倍的现实主义者称"我认为我是失败者。"

    信仰与幸福之间的联系与宗教并没有太大关系。所有关于这一主题的无党派调查发现基督教徒（新教徒、天主教徒、摩门教和其他教会）与犹太教信徒，以及其他宗教传统的成员比现实主义者更有可能表示他们是幸福的。这也与我们除了用参加崇拜服务来衡量宗教活动的方式无关。在2004年，分别有36%每天祈祷的人和21%没有祈祷的人表示他们是十分快乐的。

    当然，并非每一个宗教信仰者都快乐，也非每一个现实主义者都不快乐。然而，信仰显然是幸福的美国人中一种普遍的价值观。

    幸福预言二：工作

    如果今天中了彩票，你会辞职吗？如果是像大多数美国人的话，那你可能不会这么做。当在2002年全国超过一千人被如此问说："如果你拥有足够的钱让你可以舒适得度过余生，你会停止工作吗？"低于于三分之一的回答者表示愿意。

    与广泛流传的观念相反的是，大多数美国人喜欢，甚至热爱他们的工作。2002年，令人惊讶的是有89%的人表示他们非常或有点满意自己的工作。这在所有的工人中是事实，但对那些从事高收入，高技术的人来说并非如此。而在无论是否有大学文凭的人与为私人企业、非盈利组织和政府工作的人中，这个百分比是几乎一模一样的。

    对大多数美国人来说，工作满意度几乎相当于生活满意度。在那些表示他们生活很幸福的人当中，95%的人对他们的工作也很满意。此外，工作满意度似乎也会影响这个幸福，而非其他的方式。

    幸福预言三：婚姻与家庭

    自二十世纪六十年代以来，婚姻生活总有许多的摩擦。据说会让许多人，尤其是女人回归到她们快乐的最大潜力。千万别信。

    2004 年，42%的已婚美国人表示他们非常幸福。而只有23%的未婚者这么说。感到幸福的人的数量甚至低于其他的人群：其中20%的人是寡妇，17%的人已离婚，还有11%与配偶分居的人表示他们是幸福的。总的来说，已婚者中认为自己幸福的比不这么认为的人有可能多出六倍以上。而一般来说，较多的已婚女性比已婚男性表示自己很幸福。

    婚姻不仅仅与幸福有关--至少对于我们很多人来说，它可以带来幸福感。2003年一项对二万四千人进行长达十年之久的研究证明在人们结婚后幸福感有很大幅度的提高。对一些人来说，这种幸福感的增长在几年里会逐渐减弱，然后以回到他们婚前的幸福感水平作为结束。但对另一些人，这可以持续一生的时间。

    那如果有了孩子的话呢？当有了他们自己的孩子后也并未出现幸福水平的提高（实际上幸福感有稍微减弱的趋势）,研究显示幸福的生活方式或许包含了像婚姻和宗教这些事情，而孩子同样也一直是其中的一部分。看看这个：有50%有孩子和宗教信仰的已婚者认为他们自己非常幸福，而只有17%没有孩子也没有宗教信仰的未婚者会如此认为。

    我们都听说过金钱买不到幸福，这当然是对的。但有一种方式可以做到，那就是放弃金钱。

    证据是显而易见的，给慈善机构的礼物和其他值得的原因能让给予者对物质生活感到满意。如果今天你想要价值50美元真实的幸福感，那就把它捐给最爱的慈善机构吧。

    捐赠者比非捐赠者多出43%表示自己很幸福。志愿者比非志愿者多出42%表示自己会幸福。这与金钱的礼物是否送到教堂或交响乐团并无关联；宗教与世俗的给予能带个人们同样的快乐，而这远远多于那些从不付出的人。就连捐血这种特殊的个人付出也能够改善我们的态度。

    基本上，人们付出得越多，获得的快乐也就越多。

    幸福预言四：自由

    创立者将伴随着追求幸福的自由二字列于表中，就如一个值得为此向民族独立作斗争的事物。事实上，自由与幸福是密切相关的：那些认为自己自由的人比并不这么认为的人要幸福得多。2000年的社会普及调查显示，个人感觉自己"完全自由"或"非常自由"的人要比没有这些感觉的人可能多出两倍认为自己的生活很快乐。

    然而，并非所有的自由方式都代表幸福。研究人员指出经济上、政治上与宗教信仰上的自由都可以带来幸福感。而从另一方面来看，对于道德上的自由，即在行为上缺乏约束就并非如此了。一些人感觉在他们的人生中有无数的道德选择，如性或药物，那他们比那些不认为有如此多选择的人要不幸的多。

    美国人似乎相当明白这一点。在2004年总统大选时，当民意测验专家询问投票者美国面临最为重要的问题是什么时， 他们选择最多的是"道德价值观".这一项打败了经济、恐怖主义、伊拉克战争、教育和卫生保健这些人们首要关注的问题。学者与政治家当然希望我们想到其它问题，批评家们嘲笑这一结论，将它解读成普通美国人与社会脱离的证据。当道德价值观对于美国人却起着决定性的作用。这就表示作为一个民族，我们要尽全力保护我们的政治经济自由，并防范文化的约束力。

    美国的教训

    数据告诉我们最为关系到幸福的并非很多的物质而是拥有健康的价值观。没有这些价值观，我们的工作和经济将给我们带来没有灵魂的辛劳与沉闷无趣的财富。因此，这将让我们没有理由再去拼搏、去维持和平和保护我们的生活方式。卫生保健系统将让我们更健康，但拥有了健康的身体却无法享受快乐幸福的生活，这又如何呢？

    无论作为个体或是家庭，如果想要过得幸福快乐，那这些事实可以帮助我们谨记什么才是我们应该留意的。对于公共政策与政治也有一条重要的信息。领导者们要对辅助我们过上幸福担负起责任，并且不允许用掉以轻心的态度来限制信仰、工作、家庭、慈善与自由这些价值观的存在。

    候选人的竞选办公室应该对幸福进行询问与讨论，在新闻中他们的答案应该是可以确定我们的选票的。

    我们的幸福对我们，对美国，推其他所有的食物都实在是太重要了。

    美国的方式

    独立就是幸福。

    Susan B. Anthony

    你的幸福所需就是一把好枪，一匹好马和一个好妻子。

    Daniel Boone

    这就是幸福：完全并很好的融入到某些事情中。

    Willa Cather

    快乐存在于工作之中。幸福莫非就是发现自己完成了一些事。

    Henry Ford

    对事情保持热情就成功的关键。但用这些热情去帮助他人便是幸福的关键。

    Arnold Schwarzenegger

    当你给他人带去快乐时你会获得更多的快乐，你应该好好思考一下当你可以付出时所收获的快乐。

    Eleanor Roosevelt

    幸福与道德责任密不可分。

    George Washington

    幸福是良好经营生活得副产物，通过对具有意义、有时也会令人烦恼的事业的追求来实现。出自Mark O'Connell--婚姻的恩惠

    如果大家都幸福，我会为此感到高兴。