《生活大爆炸》里面的Penny一直找不到別的工作，只好在餐廳當服務員。有智商優越感的人可能覺得那是她的能力問題，可是經濟學理論卻不這么認為。在經濟學領域有個理論叫“漂亮服務員經濟指數”，說的是餐廳里漂亮服務員越多說明當下經濟形勢越不好。Penny聽到這個理論應該會很開心吧。

Hot Waitress Economic Index is an index that indicates the state of the economy by measuring the number of attractive people working as waiters/waitresses. According to the hot waitress index, the higher the number of good looking servers, the weaker the current state of the economy. It is assumed that attractive individuals do not tend to have trouble finding high-paying jobs during good economic times. During poor economic times, these jobs will be more difficult to find and therefore more attractive people will be forced to work in lower paying jobs such as being waiters/waitresses.

漂亮服務員經濟指數（Hot Waitress Economic Index）指通過計算長相出眾的人從事服務員職業的人數來預測經濟形勢的指數。該指數顯示，從事服務員職業的漂亮人士越多，當前的經濟形勢越差。因為通常都認為長相出眾的人在經濟形勢良好的時候，想找份高薪的工作并不困難。在經濟形勢不太好的時候，高薪工作難找，那些相貌出眾的人也不得不從事服務員這樣的低薪職業。

Traditional economic theory contends that employment tends to be a lagging indicator for economic recovery. However, the hot waitress economic index could be a coincident or even a leading indicator for economic recovery because attractive people may be the first group of individuals to find better paying jobs when a bad economy begins to turn around.

傳統的經濟理論認為，就業在預測經濟時是一個相對滯后的指數。不過，漂亮服務員經濟指數卻是一個巧合或者甚至可以作為一個預測經濟復蘇的先行指數，因為漂亮人士可能是經濟開始好轉時第一批能找到較高收入工作的人群。

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(中國日報網英語點津 Helen )