In the past ten years I have not been able to defeat the theory that money literally stores time ( saved by or spent in production ) and that our claim that it is a store of value is a mistaken subjective perception given the utility in accounting rather than an objective description of its causality.
When we cooperate we save time. When we divide labor we save more.
When we exchange productively we save more.
We are not wealthier in time than our distant ancestors, we have – depending upon how we wish to describe the phenomenon – made everything cheaper in cost of time while at the same time holding caloric expenditure relatively constant. And thanks to the nineteenth And twentieth centuries, dramatically reduced the cost in cellular damage per moment. Even if we have offset it a bit with chemical preservatives, carbohydrates and sugars.
So all increases in productivity ( not aggregate productivity, but case specific productivity) reflect time savings. Just as all thefts and frauds its loss.
Now we could also restate time saved as time created, or time made available rather than time saved.
But I think doing so enters the domain of mathematical Platonism. No matter what we do, money is only able to influence others by paying them in saved time to prefer spending their time on what we desire of them versus the alternatives.
Comments
Mark King —So, to borrow money is to borrow time saved by others (living on borrowed time so to speak.) To default on a loan is to have literally wasted someone’s time.–
Davin Eastley —^That is correct indeed.–
Jason Conway —This almost seems like you’ve described the commoditization of time through the use of commodificaton.–