Money is Time

 

"Time is money" expresses the sentiment that the time you spend could be used to make money. But the opposite is true too - money is time.

If you're short on money and have lots of time you might want to consider trading some of that time for money. If you're short on time and have the money you might want to consider trading some of that money for time. We trade money and time for one another, and there's an optimal point between those two values that is best for you.

We depict the prototypical rich businessman who is too busy on his phone to make time for his kids as the type of person to say, "time is money". So while it is an expression our society uses, it is not an expression our society endorses. "Time is money" is not a piece of the world's wisdom, in fact it is the opposite. The person who uses the expression is either the antagonist or at least the unreformed protagonist of our stories.

The idea that our culture is viciously competitive and everyone is tripping over themselves to make more money is one of the false narratives society tells about itself. It's always the people in the room who understand that you shouldn't trade your whole life for money, and it's those other people outside the room who are endlessly in pursuit of greed. But then you walk into the next room and find the same thing, and the room after that the same. So where exactly are all these greedy people?

Maybe our culture is on the other wrong side of the time/money curve. Maybe a lot of our problems are because people aren't in enough pursuit of money. Sure maybe at an individual level we are making optimal tradeoffs, but the pursuit of money serves a social function. If you don't want that next promotion, or better job, or higher level career, then society is deprived of your potential. We are selfishly not pursuing money.