Time is money. Not only is the clock “different” here and there. Let’s say the time is 1 hour past noon (12:00). Here, I mean in Poland or more generally in Europe, you say thirteen. Over there, in America that is, and nobody refers to the country as the United States of America in everyday conversations, you would say 1pm. You can say thirteen hundred, but that is known as the military time.
And now getting back to my original thought … People here (in Poland, in Europe) still seem to have much more time. Over in the States there is no such a thing as free time. You either work to make money or rest to be able to work to make money. Even if you are unemployed, you value your time in monetary terms. It’s simply the set of mind.
Let me use this as an example. The other day I saw news about a guy who built a miniature ship out of matches. It took over 10,000 hours to do it. Yes! Ten thousand hours! And whatever number of matches. I think they said a million – don’t quote me that, though. The guy and the television crew were ecstatic about the success. Nobody ever built a bigger replica! Not ever! Not even in the United States!
And I’m thinking to myself - what a waste of time and natural resources! First (of) all: matches. Where, the hell, would you get matches in the US of A? For safety reasons, whatever otherwise would normally need matches like stoves or ovens is self-igniting, so you don’t need matches in the first place. Those matches that you can get are made of paper (carton) not wood, so you can’t use them for model building, anyway.
The other thing is the time. In the USA you would be doing “something”. Cleaning, fixing up, looking for a job, whatever can or does produce at least a potential(ly) measurable benefit. Even @ (at) US$10 per hour, which is close to minimum wage in real terms, x (times) number of hours worked, or spent on putting those matches together, you would buy yourself a boat or build yourself a real one. Time is money …
See ya.
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