Time is Money but labor? | 時間就是金錢，但勞動呢?
Time is money. This sentence is so obvious in the current mainstream economy. Through the tireless efforts of capitalism, we can now even calculate the time value of money.
According to the description in Time Value of Money:
“The time value of money is a widely accepted conjecture that it is more beneficial to receive an amount of money now than to receive the same amount later. This may be seen as a hint of the concept of time preference that was later developed.
The time value of money refers to the observation that it is better to receive money earlier than later. The money you have today can be invested to earn a positive rate of return, thereby generating more money tomorrow. Therefore, a dollar today is worth more than a dollar in the future. “
It is true that money now is more valuable than in the future. This is due to uncertainty, but also because of this, money in the future is destined to depreciate, and this uncertainty and scarcity may become one of the elements of inflation.
But this is not today’s topic, but what seems to be missing in this obvious discussion. What makes today’s money valuable?
The things that can be bought are the value of currency. Buying a cup of coffee, a hamburger, a piece of fried chicken… purchasing power is the real value of currency.
A deeper understanding, what are we buying? Whether it is coffee, burgers, or even a movie, it is a combination of materials and labor, produced by the materials of this world and people’s minds.
We can explain the value of materials using the supply and demand curve, but what about labor? Is it measured by salary/hourly wage?
Since the beginning of classical economics, there has been a profound but difficult to explain discussion of labor value.
The famous labor theory of value explains it this way:
“Adam Smith believed that the price of a commodity reflected how much labor it saved the buyer. “
“According to Ricardo and Marx, value refers to the amount of socially necessary labor required to produce marketable goods, and this includes the labor component required to develop any real capital (that is, physical assets used to produce other assets).”
Modern society uses salary/hourly wage to simply and crudely calculate the value of labor.
For example:
If the cost of coffee beans for a cup of coffee is 1 US dollar, a laborer can brew 10 cups of coffee an hour and his hourly wage is 20 US dollars, then the real value of a cup of coffee should be 3 US dollars. However, with the addition of capital and site cost, as knows as Rent-seeking, maybe $5 for a cup of coffee.
What is the rent-seeking cost of capital and site? It is the time value of money mentioned above, that is, all the capital invested in the production site now is expected to be able to obtain in the future more than the total amount invested at that time.
So you paid the time value of money + material cost + labor value, but is this reasonable? And why can consumption at this moment pay for the time value in the future? Is it reasonable or unreasonable?
This is the interesting part, the ghostly value of being able to travel through time and space is left for everyone to think about.
時間就是金錢，這句話在現行的主流經濟體是如此的天經地義，透過資本主義的孜孜不倦，我們現在連貨幣的時間價值都能夠計算了。
根據貨幣時間價值中的描述 :
「貨幣的時間價值是一種被廣泛接受的猜想，即現在收到一筆錢比以後收到同等金額的利益更大。這或許可以看作是後來發展出來的時間偏好概念的一種暗示。
金錢的時間價值是指早收到錢比晚收到錢更好的觀察。你今天擁有的錢可以用來投資以獲得正回報率，從而在明天產生更多的錢。因此，今天的一美元比未來的一美元更有價值。」
的確，現在的錢比未來有價值，這是出於不確定性，但也因為如此，未來的錢注定要貶值了，而這個不確定性與稀缺可能成為通膨的元素之一。
不過這不是今天的主題，而是這個顯而易見的論述中，似乎遺漏了什麼。是什麼讓現在的貨幣具備價值?
可以買到的東西，就是貨幣的價值，買一杯咖啡、一個漢堡、一份炸雞…購買力就是貨幣的真實價值。
更深一層的認識，我們購買的是什麼? 不論是咖啡、漢堡、甚至是一場電影，這都是物料與勞動的結合，是這個世界的物質與人們的心智所產生。
物料的價值我們可以用供需曲線來解釋，那麼勞動呢? 以薪資/時薪來衡量嗎?
古典經濟學開始，就對於勞動價值有著深刻卻又無法很好解釋的論述，鼎鼎大名的勞動價值論是這樣說明的 :
「亞當史密斯認為商品的價格反映了它可以「節省」購買者多少勞動力。」
「根據李嘉圖和馬克思的觀點，價值是指生產可銷售商品的社會必要勞動量，這包括開發任何實際資本（即用於生產其他資產的實體資產）所需的勞動力成分。」
現代社會則是用薪資/時薪簡單粗暴的計算了勞動價值。
舉個例來說 :
一杯咖啡的咖啡豆如果成本是1美元，勞動者一小時可以沖泡10杯咖啡而他的時薪是20美元，那麼一杯咖啡的真實價值應該是3美元，然而加上了資本與場地的尋租成本，或許一杯咖啡就要5美元了。
而什麼又是資本與場地的尋租成本，就是前面提到的貨幣的時間價值，也就是現在投入在生產場所的所有資本，期望在未來能夠得到超過當時所投入的總額。
因此你付出了貨幣的時間價值+物料成本+勞動價值，不過這樣合理嗎? 又為什麼此時此刻的消費能夠支付未來的時間價值呢? 究竟合理還是不合理呢?
這就是有趣的地方，能夠穿越時空鬼魅般的價值，就留待大家去思考了。
