Moore’s Law Makes Time More Valuable.
That sounds simple, but it’s a huge deal. It also explains a lot of today’s economic dislocations.
Time is the one thing technology can’t give us. It can only help us get more out of the time we have. When technology improves productivity, we can do more. More gets done. We have more money to spread around. We spend it buying time.
Labor sells its time for money. Moore’s Law makes this time more valuable, too. This makes education more expensive. It makes day care and elder care more expensive. That’s why Americans retire to Ecuador. It’s why, despite our misgivings, we keep getting new Americans. It’s all an effort to buy more labor time to do things that still must be done by people.
One result of rising labor costs is that so-called “low wage” jobs get automated. No more clerks at McDonald’s. Instead of a kid with a lawn mower, we get a crew towing leaf blowers and riding mowers. Everyone must get more value out of their time to keep up with the “cost of living,” most of which is the cost of buying others’ time.
We eat out and order in because we don’t have time to cook. We buy online because we don’t have time to go to the store. It seems we’re wasting all this extra time we buy on video games and binging. But leisure time is still time and wasting it is a sign of wealth.
Health care costs will never decline because we’re buying time. Time on this Earth. The average 65 year old can reach 83. In 1933 they could only make it to 67. This is seen as the great tragedy of Social Security. It’s really the sign of how much our prosperity has increased.
Time is the Ultimate Luxury
Time is the ultimate luxury good. You would think, understanding this, that we would be spending more money during that time. We don’t. You can spend as much time on a $20/month streamer as on a $150/month cable package, and a one-time video game purchase can waste what seems like infinite amounts of time. When you can spend less money on your leisure time, its status as luxury increases.
The wealth gap in America is defined by time not money. A knowledge worker’s week isn’t really 40 hours. It’s more like 20 hours of intense work, 15 hours of meetings, and at least 5 hours recharging and goofing off. Contrast that with a factory worke
r’s 40 hours, going constantly at high speed to exhaustion. Maybe they’re working two jobs, and spending unpaid time going between them, but they are buying the precious hours needed to spend in a bed, somewhere. Why do immigrants do it? They’re buying time for their kids.
America’s young people intuitively understand Moore’s Law of Labor. They’re not lazy. They just want to buy more time with their labor. If that means taking less money for their time, it’s a trade-off many make gladly. They’re not being stupid. Their critics are.
Once you understand Moore’s Law of Labor, enjoy your weekend.
