The Under Cover Economist

[Legend of Zu]

In every decision we make about all aspects of our life, we put a value on something whether it is our time, our lives, our environment or our beliefs - almost about everything, yet we may not admit or own it, in some cases we may not even aware of them and what are their implications.

 

Generally, people say they killing time or in today’s language just ‘Chilling’ or ‘Having Fun’, what they are trying to do (they may not aware of it)is to set a value of what they think their time’s worth. Perhaps the term wasting time comes to mind! Is there such thing as wasting time, one may ask? Can time really be wasted, another will ask? Or perhaps in this instance, we devalue our time to the point where we think it is worthless or may be our time is worth doing nothing! Do you think wasting time is actually worthless?? I beg to differ. By Doing Nothing you are setting the value of time to its highest level and You can’t afford it! You are too poor to afford it.

 

‘Having Fun’ or ‘Enjoying Yourself’ (depending what you call enjoyment) or ‘Chilling and Doing Nothing’ is most expensive thing you can ever do, they do not come cheap whether in meaning or in literality (macnawi ama daahiri)

 

At this point you are assuming I am referring to the cost of doing nothing! And you could be forgiven for thinking along the lines of social cost or personal cost of doing nothing. With the time you used to do nothing, you could probably have used it to earn some cash or educate yourself and so on. No, that is the opportunity cost of doing nothing! Not the Value of Doing Nothing…..

 

Confused? Annoyed? Frowning? I say to You Welcome to the world of the Undercover Economist.

 

Find out “What is the Value of Doing Nothing is in the next episode of Undercover Economist

 

^^^^ Inspired by “The Under Cover Economist” Book by Tim Harford

 

Disclaimer:

Wrote it while commuting and it is one of my random theories!

 

Cheers

[Valenteenah.]

The value of doing nothing is relative. Isn't it? For example, someone who is ill or in a lot of stress needs to do nothing in order to recover. Having fun has a high value as well as it is emotionally enriching. So, doing nothing can sometimes be as valuable as making cash or educating yourself.

 

Am I wrong?

[-Lily-]

I agree with Val, but not just when you're sick or stressed is 'not doing anthing' valuable. There never is such a thing as 'not doing anythig'. You're always doing something, its just how much that 'thing' is valued by yourself or others.

 

Who says time is valuable only when we sell it? I mean that's the case with working, you are selling your time. Or if you're a student you're exchaning your time in hope of better work prospects and so on, thus your time is still regarded as 'valuably spent'. And if I am bored and 'not doing anything' it's very expensive? I beg to differ. It all comes down to what is actally perceived as 'valuable time spending'.

 

Now, does that make sense?

[Didi Kong]

The value of doing nothing is how much you value your leisure time. Say you want to go into early retirement so you can go for very long vactions during the year doing nothing, it is going to be really expensive. It's all about how much you are willing to give up now to do nothing later.

[Khalaf]

wasting time, add sleep around 8 hrs a day, thats 1/3 of the day. Say u live up to 65 years, dat would mean u slept 21 years of your life and lived only 41 years.......hahaha i only lived about 13 years crazy shit....time is fast....we gotta focus enjoy it one life namean.

 

u dont live in US but u hear dat 25,000 ppl become millionares everyday in da states..... source