I have a neighbor who
baffles me in just about every way. This neighbor taxes my
imagination and my patience. This neighbor is the exact reason why I
am so critical of just about every one of my countrymen. Before I go
further, please know that I am not judgmental, to each his own. Also,
let it be known that we need all types of people to make up the
fabric of life. Last, please know that if everyone lived the way I
do, modern civilization would not exist.
When I think about
economy I think of one of three things. The first is Adam Smith and
the classical economic debate. In a nutshell, Smith tells us that
economics is the continuum of unlimited human desires overlaid on
limited resources. Again, this a paraphrase, and I think it's true.
The second thing I think about is the ninth point of the Boy Scout
Law, A Scout is Thrifty. The
tenth edition of the Boy Scout Handbook says this about it: A
scout works to pay his way and to help others.
He saves for the future. He protects and conserves natural resources. He carefully uses time and property.
I know
that not everyone has had the benefit of Adam Smith and The
Wealth of Nations. I know that
not everyone has been a Boy Scout.
Sadly,
I know that not everyone has read Henry David Thoreau's Walden.
Walden is the third
point of my thoughts on Economy. Thoreau did not pay his taxes
because he did not believe in the Fugitive Salve Act nor did he
believe in the war with Mexico. What if I don't believe in building
walls or banning people from predominately Muslim countries, should I
forgo paying taxes? Political leanings aside, Thoreau wanted more
time to spend in nature, which was the basic fundamental belief with
Transcendentalism. Thoreau outlines how he spent his money and his
time in the chapter “Economy” which I think is well worth the
read.
For
me, I see my neighbor who has the fancy latest and greatest
smartphone, the most gaudy mani-pedi, two automobiles and so many
processions that she can scarcely close her front door. Her
electricity is occasionally shut off because she is unable to pay the
bill. It's my misfortune to see so many other people who have so much
stuff, so many services and yet are so poor both financially and
intellectually. After all, before the television came to take it all
away, people spent their time reading, learning disciplines like
music or art. Now, we just have to have the next great thing and more
and more of it.
It
makes me realize that that stupid old statement “time is money”
is completely erroneous. There are those characters who at the end of
their life will do anything, at any cost, to prolong life one more
day. It is not a question of how to prolong one more day but how to
prolong everyday from the onset of consciousness to the end of it.
Time is not money nearly as much as money is time.
So,
if money is time, then the pursuit of money (or material things) is
the primary economic focus, then the opportunity cost is time. How do
you want to spend your time? Me? I want to write. I want to think. I
want the day, everyday. I want to be with my notebook, the air around
me and the views inside.
Economy,
to me, is the freedom to pursue writing, creation and art without the
tethers and confines of financial burden. I may not have much in the
way of things, or even money, but I do not have many bills and I have
no debt. There is no one making money off of my labor, my back. I
figure to pursue art, in my case writing, I could not be a prisoner
to the economy either internally or externally.
I
wish everyone could cast away those material desires, obey a personal
code of economy and blossom into creation of art. Perhaps everyone
still can.
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