Time is the Real Currency
By John de Graaf
We've got the idea that more is always better. We fault Europeans for not having as high a gross domestic product (GDP), but that's because they've chosen to use a large portion of their productivity for leisure time, which isn't counted in GDP. We're working nearly nine weeks longer each year than Western Europeans. In terms of health rates, Europeans are doing much better than we are. We like to think of ourselves as a middle-class nation, but we have the smallest middle class (except for Russia) of all industrialized countries.
We have the most product, the widest choices, but is that what life is about? I think our priorities are out of whack. We have the greatest gap among industrialized nations between rich and poor, and that seems to press everybody to compete to live like the people at the top. We focus on producing and consuming stuff, and we've forgotten that all of these other values are losing out: friendships and family, health and civic participation, a future for our children.
For me, it comes down to time. This is what you really want to give to to others and what you want from them.
We have to attack the mind-set that says spending a long time over dinner with your family, during which no money changes hands, is a waste.
This article was written by our friend John de Graaf, coauthor of Affluenza: The All-Consuming Epidemic (Berrett-Koehler) and national coordinator of Take Back Your Time. This piece recently appeared in the March 2005 edition of O, the Oprah Magazine.