The Money, Life Balance

Is the love of money the root of all evil?

What is the meaning of money? I don't mean in the general sense... like what is the meaning of life. I mean what does it mean to you?

You would think that the basics are pretty simple right. How do you get money? What do you do with money? How much money do you need?

How do you get money? The vast majority of people work for it. I am going to ignore the people who don't work for money because this is not a general thesis about money but about what it means to most people. Working is really selling or renting. What you are selling or renting is your capacity to do some function for a given amount of time. You are selling or renting this to someone else (company, individual etc). In exchange for providing this commodity you get some number of dollars, rupees, etc. It seems really simple, does this really apply to everyone?

Let's make this idea really concrete. If you are curious and want the unabridged version checkout the following links. They tell an interesting story.

US demographics - wikipedia

US dept of labor statistics - 2007 survey and estimates

The popluation of US is about 300 million (third largest in the world after china and india). If the number is too large or abstract for you just think of it as 300. In fact that is what I am going to do. Just add million in your own head if you want. About a 100 are probably too young work and about 50 are probably retired. So about 150 can work. From 2007 survey we know that about 135 are working so our numbers are in the right ball park.

Out of this 135 that work, the census bureau lists there are about 30 categories of professions and 800 professions.

Who decides to hire you? Your boss? Who decides to hire her? you can ask this question all the way to the CEO. Who decides to hire the CEO? The board of directors. Who hires them? You. The stock holder (if you are a stock holder that is).

Now let's talk about pay. Your pay. How does your pay get determined? Your boss has some work that she needs to get done. Based on that she knows she has to hire some one with certain ability and competence. How do you or your employer decide how much your capacity to do a particular function is worth? Same way you put a price on a gallon of milk. There are suppliers there are consumers and the price is a balancing between supply and demand. So you come in for an interview and if all goes well, your boss has to negotiate a salary with you. You look at what other people that perform the same function get paid. You boss also looks at the same thing. They make an offer or ask you how much you want. If either she thought you asked too much or you thought she offered too little, you walk away and find another buyer and she will find another seller. The same thing happened to your boss when her salary was decided. This continues all the way to the CEO. What is the CEO responsible for? Making sure that the company as a whole continues to make money. Who decides the pay for the CEO? The board of directors. Welcome to the circle of pay.

But we only covered one part of the circle. How does your company get the money to pay you. By selling products or services of course.

We are still not done with the circle. Now that you have money, what do you spend it on? Things that you need and want. For example a house, food, clothing, cars, gas, banking, electricity, music, movies, cellphones, tvs, sofas, dining rooms , the list goes on and on. Who provides these services? ... the companies and finally you.

That completes the circle of money. So you buy other people's time with your time. So time is indeed money and money is time. A carpenter's time, a banker's time, your time my time. Your time is your life. So that is the meaning of money.

If money is life, then is love of your life the root of all evil?