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People often say that time is money. However, whereas
most currency units are based on multiples of ten, time as
used for most purposes is based on widely variable but
often quite sensible multiples such as sixty, twenty-four
and so on. Later on, this does succumb to the decimal,
though as
I've mentioned before that is our probably quite
irrational choice.
People are often paid per unit of time, and there is such a
thing in some countries as a minimum wage. However, we
lose touch with what that is if we are paid more or less
than that sum per unit of work.
Enter time currency. People at minimum wage are paid in
hours, i.e. an actual unit of currency referred to as an
"hour", divisible into sixty "minutes", each themselves
divisible into sixty "seconds". The next unit up is of course
the "working day" of eight hours, assuming that should be
fixed as a standard. Five (again this is arguable) of those
make a "working week" and so forth.
This is an international currency. Consequently, all wages
are based at the same minimum, where there is a
minimum wage. The cost of many goods and services is
based on how much time it took to make or provide it,
although that's again a minimum.
Loads of flaws in this of course. Do your worst.
In Time
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_Time
Movie with the premise that time has become the universal currency. [xaviergisz, Apr 25 2017]
[link]
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No no no. You don't want my worst. The lyrics are
permanently ingrained in several sanitarium residents, and
the fallout from the yodeling chorus alone nearly set off an
international incident. |
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Maybe your worst is my best. |
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Did you know that it is actually illegal to yodel in public in Switzerland during weekdays, unless you are a licenced performer or are calling for help? |
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No, it doesn't matter where you were born. It's just not allowed aloud. |
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Is this finally going to solve the quandary posed by Dust in
the Wind? |
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We're forever being told to not waste time yet not to worship
money in one confounding cluster. Also that we shouldn't be
stingy with either and to store up treasure in heaven,
whatever that means. |
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I think they're just trying to break math. |
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Time dollar contains 60 pennies. I like it. The work uses time,
so time is money. |
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Only if the surgeon is working for minimum wage, [a1]. |
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No it wouldn't; we'd just pay the surgeon, say, eighty "hours" for
the brief operation she's just performed, instead of paying her
seven hundred "pounds" (because that much weight of sterling
silver is hard to carry home). |
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// all wages are based at the same minimum// |
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This is where you go badly astray. Market manipulation to anything approaching this ends in the collapse of nations. |
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I think there are two aspects to this idea and neither is totally silly. First aspect, is to align the number base(s) of time and money. Suggested is to have varying units of money, so you have 60 farthings in a penny, 60 pennies in a shilling, 8 (or maybe 24) shillings in a pound, and 5 (or maybe 7) pounds in a guinea (names chosen slightly arbitrarily). This is not neccesarily any more silly than the old currency where the ratios were 4 : 12 : 20 : 1.0833333... instead. |
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After centimalisation of the currency (I suppose there was a kind of technical decimalisation until shillings were quickly abandoned) the base 100 (theoretically base 10) number division came up. So perhaps a more intuitive solution would be to re-adopt the French revolutionary calendar and time system, where the day has 10 hours and the hour has 100 minutes and the minute has 100 seconds. |
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Second is the sugggestion that the value of a currency is pegged to a minimum wage. I think this is actually sillier than all the stuff above because of Economics but I haven't had enough coffee yet this morning. |
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Just declare the "Economical Wage" to be £10 per decimal hour and the system is instantly implememented |
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This is not what that phrase normally refers to. |
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//This is not what that phrase normally refers to.// |
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Setting a minimum and maximum wage is a staggeringly heavy hand manipulating the labor market. It's not only private industry that attempt to artificially manipulate the market, nor is the market only harmed if it's private industry doing it. |
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From Thucydides*' third book: |
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"Words had to change their ordinary meaning and to take that
which was now given them. Reckless audacity came to be
considered the courage of a loyal ally; prudent hesitation,
specious cowardice; moderation was held to be a cloak for
unmanliness; ability to see all sides of a question, inaptness to
act on any. Frantic violence became the attribute of manliness;
cautious plotting, a justifiable means of self-defence. The
advocate of extreme measures was always trustworthy; his
opponent a man to be suspected. [...] Meanwhile the moderate
part of the citizens perished between the two, either for not
joining in the quarrel, or because envy would not suffer them to
escape." |
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*I've quoted from the Crawley translation, because it's the one
that comes up in Project Gutenberg. |
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