The changing value of time in the COVID Era
In an abundant society, time is perhaps the most precious commodity. COVID-19 is forcing us to rethink how much it’s worth.
For the past few years, one of my family’s indulgences has been Saturday dinner from Parisi’s, the local high-quality pizza place. Cost: about $40, depending on how many cannolis we order.
But, to protect our health during the COVID Era, we’ve cut back on such ventures. Last Saturday, as we were enjoying a homemade meal of lamb, asparagus and peach pie, my wife turned to me and said, “this food is just as good, a lot healthier, probably equally bad for the environment, and it cost us $20 less. Why don’t we always do this?”
The answer is because making dinner ourselves takes up precious time we prefer to spend otherwise, and we’ve got enough money to afford $20 for that time. That and the fact that Parisi’s “pizza salads” are to die for (not literally, though).
I then wondered out loud: “By saving that $20, are we ruining the economy? To hear most politicians talk, the more we do that, the more we’re reducing the Gross Domestic Product. Is that a bad thing?”
My wife and I looked at each other, started to giggle a bit, and I said, “well, if it is, that’s too bad.”
That realization is one of many examples of how I, and everyone I know, have been forced to rethink the meaning and value of time since the beginning of the COVID Era.
We value time more consciously than ever. But we’re putting new values on different types of time: some higher, some lower.
We’ll pay a higher price for time with family, especially vulnerable loved ones who could be gone all too quickly.
We’re not as willing to waste time commuting to a downtown office to do work that can be as easily done from home.
We’ll spend the extra time it takes to patiently de-escalate a heated conflict (say, between parent and teenager), instead of using “because I said so” to bring it to a (usually temporary) quick end.
We’ll be willing to wait a few days until election results are counted, if that’s what it takes to maximize voter turnout and get the results of a COVID-affected election right.
We’ll appreciate the long-term value of engaging in time-sucking, frustrating, no-good, horrible, yucky “politics,” especially in our communities. It sure beats the alternative of letting a small set of people do whatever they want in our name.
And we’ll be more motivated than ever to eliminate the absurdity that, in our materially abundant nation, there are millions of people for whom “leisure time” is a luxury commodity they can’t afford.
At least I hope that’s a silver lining of the COVID Era.
Only time will tell. Two weeks of doing the same thing over and over is a fad. Two months develops a habit. Two years creates an ethos.
I know that I’m not going to torture myself by pulling out a calculator to determine the cost-benefit ratio of going grocery shopping or taking a trip to see my family.
But I’m sure that I’m going to do some things differently,
Combined with others, my actions will have a big impact on our society and economy, mostly for the better, They will also certainly cause a lot of dislocation, uncertainty and pain.
That’s going to knock down the GDP. But, if it does, I don’t care. After all, the economy — however you want to measure it — is supposed to work for us, not the other way around.
Thanks to a microscopic-sized virus, now may be the time that more Americans — especially those with the most power to do something about it — fully appreciate that value.
