【英语财经】日常活动对经济影响有多大？

Joe Queenan

Here's something that's keeping the researchers at Harvard Medical School awake at night: They've just found that sleep deprivation is now costing U.S. businesses $63.2 billion a year in lost productivity. As The Wall Street Journal reported this week, the research showed that chronic exhaustion makes employees much less efficient, even adding to the time it takes them to read their email. It also makes them more peevish, less collegial, more likely to blow a gasket. Even at Harvard, probably. All of this conspires to hamstring the economy.

Were an epidemic of sleep deprivation the only problem facing this embattled nation, we could probably resolve the matter quickly. It is not. Over the past several years, state, government-sponsored and private surveys have shown that idling in traffic costs Americans $115 billion a year, being late results in a $90 billion hit, and treating obesity sucks up $147 billion annually. All this seems to suggest that we could hack a huge chunk out of the federal deficit by getting more sleep, carpooling, taking public transportation, setting our clocks correctly and cutting back on the bacon double-cheeseburgers. With fries.

Alas, even that would not be enough. Many other reliable scientific studies out there document the degree to which seemingly harmless activities exert a negative pull on the economy. Here are just a few examples:

1. Cats with issues cost the nation $37.7 billion a year. According to experts on feline-related productivity sappage, as much as a third of employee absenteeism results from having to take a sick cat to the vet, or consoling a distraught cat, or just staying home and making a sensitive, high-strung cat feel wanted. That's without even getting into dogs, parakeets, goldfish, ferrets. Worse still, the guilt an employee feels after lying about the reason for calling in sick -- Uncle Vinnie's second funeral this year, a boiler explosion, scarlet fever -- makes him less likely to function properly for the next few days.

2. Tweeting costs the nation $112 billion a year. Forget Facebook; time-management buffs increasingly regard Twitter as the silent productivity killer. That includes time spent tweeting and reading other people's tweets, and time lost at work because of thieves breaking into employees' empty houses after reading their jubilant tweets from St. Croix.

3. Retweeting costs the economy an additional $65.6 billion.

4. Transferring vinyl LPs to serviceable MP3 files costs the nation $11.7 billion a year. This is a shocker, but baby boomers are really serious about this stuff. Preserving the audio quality of Pink Floyd's 'The Dark Side of the Moon,' 'Led Zeppelin IV' and Carole King's 'Tapestry' alone results in a $2.6 billion annual drag on the U.S. economy.

5. Grumpy co-workers cost the economy $26.8 billion every year. Maybe they're sleep-deprived, maybe they have bad backs, maybe they're still fuming over those nasty tweets their ex-spouses put out there, but this is a scientific fact.

6. The time Americans spend listening to banjo music now exerts a $13.7 billion drag on the economy. This thing just came out of nowhere. This does not include time spent listening to the mandolin, the fiddle or the ukulele. This retro, rootsy music craze has just brought this country to its knees. Some observers believe that excessive affection for banjo music and sleep deprivation and co-worker grumpiness may be connected. Especially if employees bring banjos to the office.

7. Not carrying an umbrella costs the U.S. $35.6 billion a year. Pretty obvious, that one. Or so you would think. But because umbrellas are bulky and easily lost and a bit unfashionable, lots of American workers never carry them. And then they wonder why they get sick.

8. This falls under the general rubric of foolishly ignoring maternal advice. According to some experts, not paying attention to what your mother told you when you were 6 now costs the American economy $132.7 billion a year.

Not listening to Dad? $123,000. Again, no big surprise there.

Joe Queenan

有件事让哈佛医学院(Harvard Medical School)的研究人员夜不能寐：他们刚刚发现，现在睡眠不足每年让美国企业产生632亿美元的生产力损失。据《华尔街日报》(The Wall Street Journal)近期的报道，这项研究表明，慢性疲劳让员工效率大大降低，甚至增加了他们阅读电子邮件所花的时间。这也让他们变得更暴躁、更不合群、更容易发脾气。甚至在哈佛大学，情况可能也是如此。所有这些都会破坏经济。

Getty Images醒醒吧！挑剔的宠物和班卓琴音乐正在大量侵蚀我们的时间。如果普遍的睡眠不足是问题缠身的美国面临的唯一问题，或许我们可以迅速解决它。但它不是。在过去几年中，美国的国家调查、政府资助调查和私人调查显示，交通堵塞每年给美国人带来的成本为1,150亿美元，迟到的成本高达900亿美元，治疗肥胖每年要花掉1,470亿美元。这一切似乎都表明，我们如果睡得更多、拼车、乘坐公共交通工具、调好闹钟、少吃双层培根芝士汉堡──配薯条──可能会砍掉一大块联邦赤字。

唉，即使这样也不够。其它许多可靠的科学研究表明，一些看似无害的活动对经济也有程度不等的负面影响。以下只是几个例子：

1.有问题的猫每年耗去美国经济377亿美元。据研究与猫有关的生产力消耗的专家称，多达1/3的员工旷工是为了带病猫去看兽医、安慰一只焦虑不安的猫，或者只是留在家里让一只敏感而高度紧张的猫感到被需要。这还没有算上狗、长尾小鹦鹉、金鱼和雪貂。更糟糕的是，员工在编谎话请病假──文尼叔叔今年的第二次葬礼、锅炉爆炸、猩红热──之后的内疚感让他在接下来几天内都不太可能正常工作。

2.用推特(Twitter)每年耗去美国经济1,120亿美元。忘记Facebook吧，时间管理爱好者日益认为如今推特才是无声的生产力杀手。这包括发推文和看其他人的推文花的时间，还包括工作中损失的时间──小偷看到员工从圣克罗伊岛(St. Croix) 发出的欢乐微博后，闯进了他们家的空房子。

3.转发推文又耗去美国经济656亿美元。

4.将黑胶唱片转换为可听的MP3文件每年耗去美国经济117亿美元。这真是令人震惊，但婴儿潮一代对这种东西真的很认真。单单保存平克•弗洛伊德(Pink Floyd)的“月之暗面”(The Dark Side of the Moon)、“齐柏林飞船IV”(Led Zeppelin IV)和卡洛尔•金(Carole King)的“花毯”(Tapestry)每年就要耗去美国经济26亿美元。

5.脾气暴躁的同事每年耗去美国经济268亿美元。或许他们睡眠不足，或许他们后背疼，或许他们仍在为前配偶发的恼人微博火冒三丈，但总之这是科学事实。

6.美国人每年花在听班卓琴音乐上的时间耗去美国经济137亿美元。这件事不是空穴来风。这还不包括听曼陀林、小提琴或尤克里里琴的时间。这种传统复古音乐的热潮会让这个国家陷入瘫痪。一些观察家认为，过度迷恋班卓琴音乐可能与睡眠不足和同事的坏脾气有关。尤其是当员工把班卓琴带到办公室时。

7.不带雨伞每年耗去美国经济356亿美元。这么做的害处不言自明。或者你会这么想。但由于雨伞很笨重，容易丢失，而且有点老土，因此许多美国劳动者从不带雨伞。然后他们还会奇怪自己为什么会生病。

8.愚蠢地把妈妈的话当耳边风。据某些专家称，六岁小孩不注意听妈妈的话每年耗去美国经济1,327亿美元。

不听爸爸的话？成本是123,000美元。这同样也不出所料。

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