The two scarcest commodities on this planet are money and time. We never seem to have enough of either one. But this isn’t true of everyone. Some people have lots of one, some of the other, and some lucky people have both. How can this be? I have a socioeconomic theory that the time/money ratio is in fact an indicator of economic class. Here’s how it works:
If you have both time and money, you’re probably affluent. You simply have the money and don’t need to work that hard for it, if at all. Consequently, you have lots of time too. The world is your oyster. You can have your cake and eat it too.
If you have time but no money, you’re probably poor. You work less, if at all, so you have lots of time on your hands. But you have no money, which in this world poses complications of its own.
If you have money but no time, you’re probably wealthy. You have tons of money but amassing and/or preserving great fortunes takes time, and in the end your glass is half full with all the money you could ever need but no time to enjoy it.
If you have neither money nor time, you’re probably middle class. You work hard for an average salary that if you’re lucky, covers your expenses but not much more. All that work for average pay means you do a lot of things yourself, so you don’t have time to relax which is what the middle class crave most.
By this wholly specious and even frivolous analysis, the worst off in terms of mere possession of the two scarce commodities are the middle class. They would appear to do the most for the least return in either time or money.
As has been remarked before, both time and money are human constructs. We created them for our own convenience and quickly found ourselves enslaved by them. Even rich entrepreneurial billionaires have worries. They worry that there isn’t time. They have nightmares about losing their money. I don’t need to take a poll to know this.
The time/money trap is a conundrum that can’t be beaten without a third human commodity — luck. How one earns that one, I don’t know. But given our proximity to St. Patrick’s Day, the patron saint of lucky charms, I would like to take this opportunity to wish everyone lots of it. We may not have time or money, but that pot of gold is always out there, beckoning us to a freer place beyond time or money — at the end of the rainbow.
other commodities
There’s that other rule of thumb, about paying for work. It goes roughly like this:
You can only have two of the following: fast, cheap, well-done.
You can have fast and cheap, but quality will suffer.
You can have fast and well-done, but it will cost you.
You can have it cheap and well-done, but it might take a long time.
…
It is interesting that time and money are human constructs. There is no natural reason for them to impact our lives the way they do. We just let them. Ask your dog for a dollar for each walk, or a spider for an estimate of time to build a web.
Do animals experience luck? Some seem quite lucky at times.
How much?
How much does it cost to get directions from here (GPS coordinates) to the cauldron of molten gold with big dipper ladle ready to fill my ingot mold for purposes of precise exchange and how fast can my horse get me there so he can munch on oats and green pasture for ever more in time for St Patties Day? This horse, an animal (albeit domestic) would experience luck in this situation, no?.
"At the end of the rainbow"
I’ve been a little out of sorts these couple days, but glad I sat down and read Lise’s philosophical piece.
Since time has an arbitrary value of its own, too many of us “have nightmares about losing” their time, also.
“”There must be some way out of here,” said the joker to the thief…”