《生活大爆炸》里面的Penny一直找不到别的工作，只好在餐厅当服务员。有智商优越感的人可能觉得那是她的能力问题，可是经济学理论却不这么认为。在经济学领域有个理论叫“漂亮服务员经济指数”，说的是餐厅里漂亮服务员越多说明当下经济形势越不好。Penny听到这个理论应该会很开心吧。

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.

漂亮服务员经济指数（Hot Waitress Economic Index）指通过计算长相出众的人从事服务员职业的人数来预测经济形势的指数。该指数显示，从事服务员职业的漂亮人士越多，当前的经济形势越差。因为通常都认为长相出众的人在经济形势良好的时候，想找份高薪的工作并不困难。在经济形势不太好的时候，高薪工作难找，那些相貌出众的人也不得不从事服务员这样的低薪职业。

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.

传统的经济理论认为，就业在预测经济时是一个相对滞后的指数。不过，漂亮服务员经济指数却是一个巧合或者甚至可以作为一个预测经济复苏的先行指数，因为漂亮人士可能是经济开始好转时第一批能找到较高收入工作的人群。

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(中国日报网英语点津 Helen )