Time Equality is Rapidly Increasing

We each get exactly 24 hours in a day, so why not measure our standard of living in time instead of money?

Jordan Peterson’s Rule No. 4 says you should “Compare yourself to who you were yesterday, not to who someone else is today.” Since we each get exactly 24 hours in a day and no one can buy time (otherwise rich people would never die), isn’t it better to compare differences in how we spend our time? Rather than comparing differences in money income between people, we should compare differences in how we spend our time today versus how we spent it yesterday.

According to the World Bank, in 1960 China’s nominal Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita was $89.50. By 2021 it had increased by 13,929 percent to $12,556. Over this same period, nominal GDP per capita in India increased by 2,671 percent from $82.19 to $2,277.43. In the U.S. GDP per capita increased by 2,204 percent from $3,007 to $69,287.

Over this 61 year period GDP per capita in China grew six times faster than it did in the U.S. The ratio of U.S. to China GDP per capita in 1960 was 33.6. By 2021 this ratio had fallen to 5.52. During this same period the ratio of U.S. to India GDP per capita fell from 36.6 to 30.4. China is making progress, but there is still a significant gap in GDP per capita.

A better way to compare inequality is with time. Let’s start with the time it takes to earn the money to buy a basket of basic food. The World Bank tracks the nominal price of rice, wheat, and maize (corn). These three commodities represent the most commonly consumed calories around the globe. An index of the nominal prices of these three foods shows an increase of 418 percent from a base value of 1 in 1960 to 5.18 in 2021.

Let’s assume that in 1960 workers in China and India spent eight hours a day to earn the money to buy their food and workers in the U.S. spent one hour a day.

From 1960 to 2021 per capita nominal GDP in China increased by a multiplier of 140.29 while the food index grew to 5.18. The ratio of income to the food index grew to 27.08 (140.29 ÷ 5.18 = 27.08) in 2021. The time it took to buy one basket in China in 1960 will buy 27.08 baskets in 2021. The time price fell 96.3 percent from eight hours to 18 minutes. The average Chinese gained 7 hours and 42 minutes a day to devote to other activities.

By 2021 the time price of the food basket index in India fell by 81.3 percent, which means that in 1960 the eight hours of work required to earn the money to buy food had, by 2021, dropped to around 90 minutes. For the time it took to buy one basket of food in 1960, they would get 5.35 baskets in 2021. Indians gained six hours and 30 minutes.

For Americans the one hour of work required in 1960 would drop to 13.5 minutes by 2021. For the time it took to buy one basket of food in 1960, they would get 4.45 baskets in 2021. Their time price had dropped by 77.5 percent. Americans gained 46.5 minutes a day to devote to other activities.

The difference, or time gap, in 1960 was seven hours or 420 minutes between Chinese and Indians to Americans (480 - 60). By 2021, it dropped to 76.5 minutes for Indians (90 - 13.5) and 4.5 minutes for Chinese (18 - 13.5).

For every one minute Americans gained, the Chinese got almost ten and Indians 8.4. Time inequality has dramatically compressed.

As new knowledge and innovation reduce the time price of basic food items people gain more time to devote to other activities including leisure and learning and family. And when people have the time to get on learning curves and discover new knowledge, we all benefit.

You can learn more about these economic facts and ideas in our new book, Superabundance, available at Amazon. Jordan Peterson calls it a “profoundly optimistic book.”

Please consider enjoying our new course on the Economics of Human Flourishing at the Peterson Academy.

Gale Pooley is a Senior Fellow at the Discovery Institute and a board member at Human Progress.