Time Management = $$$$$$$ (or in my case, knowledge!)

My Economics book says this:

Time is a valuable economic commodity; by using an hour in productive work a person can earn income. By using that hour for leisure or in consumption activities (aka spending money or not working), the individual incurs the opportunity cost of forgone income (aka they lose it); she or he sacrifices the income that could have been earned by working.

By accounting for time, we can explain certain observable phenomena that traditional theory does not explain. It may be rational for the unskilled worker or retiree whose time has little market value to ride a bus from Chicago to Pittsburgh. But the corporate executive, whose time is very valuable, will find it cheaper to fly, even though bus fare is only a faction of plane fare. It is sensible for the retiree, living on a modest company pension and SS check, to spend many hours shopping for bargains at the mall or taking long trips in a motor home. It is equally intelligent for the highly paid physician, working 55 hours per week, to buy a new eprsonal computer over the Internet and take short vacations at resorts.

People in other nations often feel affluent Americans are "wasteful" of food and other material goods but "overly economical" in their use of ti me. Americans who visit developing countries find that time is used casually or "squandered," while material goods are very highly prized and carefully used. THese differences are not a paradox or a case of radically different temperaments. The differences are primarily a rational reflection of the fact that the high productivity of labor in an industrially advanced society gives time a high market value, whereas the opposite is true in a low-income, developing country.

Huh. Wow. Makes logical sense, although it makes me sad there is such a huge difference between developed and undeveloped countries. Wouldn't it be nice if we could take more time to smell the roses but still keep our economy up and kicking? One or the other is sacrificed when you strip away the amenities of life. But this short paragraph seems to really be concise in explaining the different temperaments between countries--I've noticed the differences even in going from rural America to corporate America--Seattle, Washington, versus Colcord, Oklahoma. It is quite striking. California has such a rushed sense to it--almost as if life is frantic, so time is rarely wasted, even vacation time is full of huge activity. We are a nation of workaholics in many metropolis areas.

Or, take for instance, where I live. A small college town, seemingly lazy, and here I sit, after 5 pm already, and no chance of slowing down. I'm managing every second of every minute of every hour today. Why, I haven't even wasted time eating lunch! I'll do that shortly when I get home, but then I'll gobble it down as I race around the house changing clothes and heading out for the tennis courts for some exercise. Humph. As if I didn't get enough racing around the house trying to find everything I lost.