Money, Time, and Information

I think that the saying which goes “time is money” is not mistaken in the least. Money appears in human culture as a synthetic, physical, accumulable, and interchangeable form of time. You probably agree with me that when you carry out some task for which you receive remuneration, or when you acquire a good or service, at bottom it is nothing more than a “purchase or sale” of time. To illustrate this idea, let us consider any person who performs a productive activity. In the first instance, that person found a way to use their time on something that other people are not willing to spend it on, performing some creative, intellectual, or physical task, from which a given “good” results. The constant exercise of productive activity has a theoretical limit represented by the physical capacities or vital energy of the individual; therefore, this person will have to acquire “more time” in order to serve a larger public, produce more units of goods, have more freedom, undertake other projects, or acquire other goods. What, then, will they do to buy more time? Simply hire other people interested in exchanging their time for money. Note that here we can find the true motivation of corporate hiring: the purchase of time. If you are a salaried employee at a company, a member of some organization, or working on a project of fixed duration, you are doing nothing more than yielding your life's time in order to obtain money. People have found various ways to sell “time.” If you have studied throughout your life and been trained in the mastery of some specialty, then the market does nothing more than value the time you have spent acquiring those skills, and the people interested in hiring you do nothing but buy your time. If you cannot sell your acquired skills, then you sell your physical effort — that is, you sell the time it takes anyone to perform that physical task.

It Is All About Time

We must bear in mind that time is the true currency of exchange, and not money, which is “almost” equivalent to time, but which, being an invention of human intelligence, I suppose exhibits certain flaws. For example, let us suppose that a person has devoted their entire life to working for an organization and enters the retirement stage, or simply resigns from their job; that person should have received a sum of money for that time spent in the organization, but they will receive only that — money. With that money they probably will not be able to reacquire the time they invested. Here is a situation from which one can understand that time seems to have a value slightly higher than that of money. It is ironic that money is one of the few resources that, with lesser value, systematically attempts to acquire another of greater value, such as time.

Surplus Value and the Labor Theory of Value

The concept of surplus value discussed in economic theory and the labor theory of value refer to the idea that the value of each “good” is determined by the time involved in producing it. This once again confirms the relationship formed by money and time. Suppose you are going to acquire a good or service; you have 2 options: one that has a higher price and another that has a lower price. What is the difference? The price? No, it is the time. If the product or good is of a higher price, there is probably greater quality — that is, more time spent improving its characteristics. If the quality does not correspond to the price, then the product's brand has spent a greater amount of time forging a reputation against its competitors. Finally, if the difference in price does not correspond to any of the previous options, I am afraid they are stealing your time and, therefore, your money. If you think that what separates you from carrying out some project or acquiring some good or service is money, perhaps you are mistaken; it is time that separates you, and as long as you do not use it efficiently you will never have either time or money. A film that addresses the dystopia of adopting time, and not money, as the medium of exchange: “El precio del mañana” or “In time”. It is no cinematic masterpiece; nevertheless, it takes up this argument of time as currency. So, according to how the rules are set, you have two resources for your projects that are “almost” equivalent: money and time — that is, either you use a great deal of time to obtain money, or you have a great deal of money and can count on plenty of time. The known way to go from one to the other is work, but only in the time-to-money sense. To go in the opposite direction — with money, to save time — we do not need work; we need information. Information is the key that allows money to acquire more time. Little information will make you choose among the worst available options; however, with a great deal of information we will always be choosing from a position of advantage — that is, we will have the best options on the table. Those better options allow you to save far more time than you could obtain by making money-for-time exchanges. Therefore, information is the resource that allows you to take fullest advantage of the exchange of money for time. © Alejandro Guipe | All Rights Reserved.