Time is Money; Americans are Poor
A new book on personal finance is hardly what America needs, but You Don't Have to be Rich by Jean Chatzky makes a beautiful point. This society has decided that money is an end, rather than a means. "Whoever dies with the most toys wins" was a popular idea in the 1980s and 1990s that has become ingrained in the American soul -- never mind that the toys are junk, and dead is dead. There is also a new campaign by a fellow named John DeGraff called "Take Back Your Time Day," dedicated to getting Americans to focus on their time poverty. Both are worthy of note.
In her book, Ms. Chatzky tries with reasonable success to make the case that money alone won't make one happy. It helps, indeed, but the richest are not necessarily the happiest, or even happy at all. The plight of the billionaire is a sad one in some respects: there is an incredible loss of freedom (security guards, etc.), an alienation from people (do they care for the money or the man?), and there is the constant concern about losing it all. In the extreme, wealth can be as great a slavery as poverty, albeit more luxurious. Ms. Chatzky does a great service in pointing all this out.
Meanwhile, Mr. De Graaf is urging Americans to reflect on the way they use their time on October 24. The date is nine weeks from the new year, and he says nine weeks is roughly how much more time Americans spend at work each year than Europeans. “It doesn’t do anything for me personally that we’re the No. 1 economy. That’s a great abstract, but what does that mean to the lives of people?” asks DeGraaf. Amen.
Wealth is rarely about money, but rather it is about the experiences money can provide. Sunrise at the edge of a rainforest, the "White Nights" of St. Petersburg in Russia, reading Shakespeare, solving a geometric proof for the first time, and watching a World Cup match -- a certain degree of leisure is required for these activities, which requires a modicum of money and that usually requires some labor. Yet the experiences are what makes a person rich, even civilized. Earning a million dollars a year by working at something unpleasant 18 hours a day 7 days a week, and in the off hours being chained to the work by a cell phone and e-mail is poverty of the soul.
Steve Allen, the late American talk-show host, comedian and musician, used to work 12-14 hours a day by his own admission. Yet, he said that he never felt he was working -- he loved what he did that much. Few have the talent to be paid for those kinds activities, however. McJobs are the necessary evil for most, but the fact that they are necessary doesn't make them any less evil. And in the rat race, win or lose, one remains a rat.
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