Time versus Money

Akire was reading from a book last night that in Mexico, time is not money. I found the concept shocking because I had thought time and effort, effort and value, value and money were equated in all cultures.

But if you are paid a low enough wage, then it becomes more valuable to use your times in ways other than converting it to money. For instance, if working another hour only paid enough to buy a few more beers, it wouldn't be worth it; you'd prefer to spend that time instead with family and friends and forego the beers.

We all need to convert time into money, since money is more fungible than time. But there is a problem with being too well compensated--as a society, we get tempted to overdo it.

It is possible to convert money back into time, say by buying yourself a few months of rent and food--but this only works if people will let you out of your obligations. As a society, we need more options for conversion in this direction and more options for not converting in the first place.