When Time is Money

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Last night I went with my siblings to the Cheesecake Factory for National Cheesecake Day where if you dined in you could get some of their famous cheesecake for $1.50. Given the popularity of the joint and the late hour of our arrival, we waited an hour to be seated, just to get a piece of cheesecake and then it took another two hours before they finally served us and gave us the check. We entertained ourselves while we waited, but we cannot comprehend what took so long to procure four slices of cheesecake for our entourage. I jokingly told my brother he owed me two hours of sleep (I normally retire around 22:00).

To be honest, I felt disappointed. The cheesecake was good, but hardly worth a three hour wait in order to save $5, when it cost me precisely that after tip (my siblings didn’t tip). I could have popped in, bought a piece right then (around 20:00), and been back at home doing something else in short order. Even I am not so much of a cheapskate to wait hours to save a few dollars. I often skip to Buy-It-Now on eBay to save the frustration of waiting to see IF I win. If I really liked cheesecake that much, I’d simply pop in, buy it, and depart in short order.

However, the government seems hell-bent on spending a dollar to save a dime. They conveniently leave out of all their calculations the value of human time, and how our technological and transportation advancements enable us to make more with less and maximize man’s utility. Some legislators want a return to the 55 MPH speed limit as a means to help cut costs on fuel. Government, to save the poor pennies, proposes billions in extra cost for commerce.

So many gas saving tips trade pennies for gobs of human time. Drive more slowly, pump your gas more slowly, pool trips, ad infinitum. This policy excludes provisions for the mercurial nature of a world in flux. It is only worth going the distance if you cannot in the same amount of time do something more worthwhile to offset the opportunity cost. I previously discussed why I do my own auto repairs since the hourly cost exceeds my hourly earning potential. However, at the time of our excursion to the Cheesecake Factory I could not make money to offset the cost, and I utilized the time to bond with my siblings, which is an activity of arguable worth.

For many years, I have stopped to pick up pennies off the street. However, it would be inadvisable for me to drive around the neighborhood looking for them when I could be at work, working out, playing with my dogs, writing this blog or one of my books, or talking to friends. There is a value added tax to everything we do, and the government wants to tax individual productivity to save us a few pennies. Spending a dollar to save a dime makes no fiscal sense, but then again, they don’t teach economics, finance, and accounting in the law profession. Biochemistry didn’t require it either, but I’m sure glad I took those courses. It may not make me an expert, but I am thereby certainly no fool.