When we decide to purchase an item or an experience, whether it’s a cup of chai with oat milk or a ghost tour (two things I enjoy), we think of the price in currency (say, in USD). But what if we thought of the price in time? As in, how much time did we have to work to fund whatever we bought?
For example, let’s say we earn $45/hour. If we book a ghost tour for $23, that means we worked about 30-minutes to experience the supernatural (or at least hear interesting stories). Eating a $15 poke bowl means we worked for 20-minutes in order to have lunch. Add tip and tax, and it’s even more time. What about a costlier item like an $800 couch? That’s 18 hours at (of) work. Really, it’s 18 hours of life we were working instead of doing whatever else we wanted to do with that time. Ironically, perhaps to lay on the couch at home.
If we start calculating a price with time instead of currency, would that change our attitude toward how (or when) we spend our earnings? Would we change how much (or when) we spend on purchasing a vehicle if we calculate how much time we spent at work to make that purchase? When I bought my first (and only) car during graduate school, I spent more than a year’s stipend on it. I shudder to think about it now, however, my choice of vehicle has proven to be a good one, as I am still using it 16+ years later.
I am slowly starting to think about purchases in terms of time rather than currency, at least for the “wants” in my life. However, since time spent at work for us in academia is flexible, I have realized I don’t even know how many hours I work per week. That makes it somewhat difficult to estimate how much time I spent on an oat milk chai.
