Understanding and measuring the value of things, always fascinated me. It's far from obvious I think.
Can we measure wealth by the "amount/quality" of good/services that you have?
Do we instantly become all richer if somebody discovers a cheaper way to build a car/TV/whatever ? (suddenly more people can afford it), or does the concept of wealth make sense mostly in relation to condition of other people ?
But anyway, perhaps we also have to take in consideration one of our often undervalued stuff: time, our time
I'm not sure, didn't check the data out there, but I have the feeling that modern life for the average people means less time for themselves.
Of course, your increased possibilities (increased wealth or reduced costs) allow you to travel around the world, take tons of pictures, having fun etc in ways that were unthinkable for the previous generations (of comparable incomes).
But we didn't get it for free, we sold our time, little pieces of our own time, one second here, one minute there.
I don't mean only the time we dedicate doing things like working, commuting etc, but also the time we sold by listening to music we didn't choose to listen, by watching advertisements of things that perhaps we don't need, by enjoying shopping, searching for stuff, addicted to all that consumer-mania stimuli which transforms our time, our attention into our perceived wealth.
Yes, because without a huge marked of people wanting to get a car/TV/whatever, those goods couldn't be affordable. Everybody in a consumer society is participating in this wealth transformation, one's own second at a time.
Can we measure wealth by the "amount/quality" of good/services that you have?
Do we instantly become all richer if somebody discovers a cheaper way to build a car/TV/whatever ? (suddenly more people can afford it), or does the concept of wealth make sense mostly in relation to condition of other people ?
But anyway, perhaps we also have to take in consideration one of our often undervalued stuff: time, our time
I'm not sure, didn't check the data out there, but I have the feeling that modern life for the average people means less time for themselves.
Of course, your increased possibilities (increased wealth or reduced costs) allow you to travel around the world, take tons of pictures, having fun etc in ways that were unthinkable for the previous generations (of comparable incomes).
But we didn't get it for free, we sold our time, little pieces of our own time, one second here, one minute there.
I don't mean only the time we dedicate doing things like working, commuting etc, but also the time we sold by listening to music we didn't choose to listen, by watching advertisements of things that perhaps we don't need, by enjoying shopping, searching for stuff, addicted to all that consumer-mania stimuli which transforms our time, our attention into our perceived wealth.
Yes, because without a huge marked of people wanting to get a car/TV/whatever, those goods couldn't be affordable. Everybody in a consumer society is participating in this wealth transformation, one's own second at a time.