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“Time inequality” is the world’s real problem, not income inequality

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“Time inequality” is the world’s real problem, not income inequality

Inequality should be measured in terms of the time it takes for us to earn the money to buy the things we need. And everyone is getting wealthier.

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5 min read
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Time is money, and the price of time is a more accurate measure of inequality than income is.

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The metric of the price of time – the ratio of an item’s price to income generated in an hour – lends itself more readily to analysis than prices and wages, claim scholars Marian Tupy and Gale Pooley in this innovative report. They provide cogent arguments that time is a more absolute and less subjective means by which to measure changes in living standards and degrees of economic disparity among individuals and countries. Executives, analysts and students of economics will find this a thought-provoking piece.

Summary

Physical resources are finite, but knowledge is not.

Knowledge is potentially limitless. Human beings throughout the millennia have availed themselves of the Earth’s resources, but today’s inhabitants possess extensively greater know-how in using those resources. That accounts for rising life expectancies since the 1800s. Human knowledge adds immense and conceivably boundless value.

Time measures growth in knowledge, and while money buys things, time pays for them. A “time price” is the ratio of an item’s money price compared to an hourly wage at the moment of a transaction. For example, if a plate of pasta costs $15 and you earn...

About the Authors

Marian Tupy is the editor of HumanProgress.org, a Cato Institute senior fellow at the Center for Global Liberty and Prosperity, and the co-author of The Simon Abundance Index. Gale Pooley is an associate professor of business management at Brigham Young University–Hawaii.

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