It's about time...

By the end of this post you will hopefully revisit the title and chuckle / be amazed by my clever wit.

Given my current situation I think I have the right to speak about the importance of time. One moment that sticks with me was when I first measured things not in monetary terms, but in their time equivalent. Back in the days of my youth, I might have visited a public house or two with some chums/pals of mine. We would occasionally partake in the enjoyment of a yeast-fermented malt flavoured beverage you might know more commonly as a "pint 'o beer". Sometimes these outings took place on a boat, but that is a story for another day. The average outing cost me $60.00 (though I oft returned with much of what those of you studying numismatics would readily recognize as "coin", sometimes totalling as much as $10, bringing my evening expenditures to a mere $50, but that is not important) which was the most I ever kept in my wallet at one time, for when consuming tasty beverages it is hard to continue when the monies are gone. But I digress, I once thought "Hey, these night's out are costing me $60 each time, but I only make $10 per hour!" After 37 or so hours of some complicated maths, I realized that during my average 8 hour shift I was leaving myself only two hours worth of income to spend for that day. It would have taken me far too long to factor in other expenses (gas, insurance, cell phone, etc.), but it was clear that spending "6 or more hours" had an impact on me far more than spending $60 did. The $60 just came out of some fancy machine at the bank. Anytime I needed more I just had to go back to the fancy machine!

I started to think more and more in terms of money as time from then on. It gave me a new perspective that has stuck with me. Money is not what is important. Time is. Sure, money is a finite resource we could all use more of, but that is only because it takes time to make money. If we had more time we could all make more money. I think it would be valuable for us all to be able to think in these terms from time to time (was that a pun?), however it would be easy to do so if taught to us from an early age. I am not a parent (sorry Mongo) so take my "here's how you should teach your kids" advice with a 50 pound bag of salt, but me thinks the following:

If your delightful/whiney child causes a fuss because they want something, help them work out how much it costs in terms of time. Perhaps the adult who makes an equivalent $30 per hour would take 3 hours to be able to afford a $90 video game that their wonderful/terrorist child so desires. The parent could then convert their time into their child's time based upon that amount. Let the child do 3 hours worth of "X" (be it chores, slave labour, spying on the neighbours, or spying on the Chinese government*) and the game is theirs. Of course this means the more the parent makes (on a dollar per hour basis) the less the child has to work. This seems only fair, given that as a percentage it works out the same, and the wealthier parent can afford to get their child more things.

*Your child should be some sort of computer hacker prodigy to do this.

Now of course, saying "no" to your child at all times / spoiling them rotten both remain viable options. The two could be intermixed with a haphazard "sometimes you get what you want, sometimes life's a bitch" type attitude teaching children the striking unfairness of most everything in life. Unless of course you are like Pat Robertson and believe Hurricane Katrina was sent by God to punish Americans (thus completely random act of nature = completely fair!)?

Anywhays, just a thought. Given that my blog is entitled "Tom's Thought's" I felt it an appropriate place to write it.

Boring ol' non-medical medical update: MRI is scheduled for Monday night at 8:30 pm (gotta love those late night MRI's... I hope there's an after party!), with results (probably/hopefully) Friday sometime. Cheers all!
--
Tom