VitalAccurateThinking

Time as Life Currency

As I mentioned here, attention is a form of currency. But, as Dr. Michael Cox demonstrates repeatedly, the ultimate life currency is time.

The conveniences we take for granted today usually began as niche products only a few wealthy families could afford. In time, ownership spread through the levels of income distribution as rising wages and falling prices made them affordable in the currency that matters most — the amount of time one had to put in at work to gain the necessary purchasing power.

At the average wage, a VCR fell from 365 hours in 1972 to a mere two hours today. A cellphone dropped from 456 hours in 1984 to four hours. A personal computer, jazzed up with thousands of times the computing power of the 1984 I.B.M., declined from 435 hours to 25 hours. Even cars are taking a smaller toll on our bank accounts: in the past decade, the work-time price of a mid-size Ford sedan declined by 6 percent.

And what does the good doctor cite as causality:

There are several reasons that the costs of goods have dropped so drastically, but perhaps the biggest is increased international trade. Imports lower prices directly. Cheaper inputs cut domestic companies’ costs. International competition forces producers everywhere to become more efficient and hold down prices. Nations do what they do best and trade for the rest.

So our lives as a nation have gotten better in the only currency that counts as a result of international trade. Just remember that when politicians talk about erecting trade barriers. In every real sense of the word, they are stealing from you.

posted by Jim VAT @ 6:05 AM