The idea that money is time was not lost in science fiction. More than once I’ve seen monetary units be credits or person hours. This simple relationship is a sort of skewering of modern capitalist systems. And somehow it feels more fair.
But what if, in our present day capitalist society, money really did equate with time? All those people simply living paycheque to paycheque would soon die off when something slipped. Because you don’t have any extra money, you wouldn’t have extra time. Where the money comes from for a proper burial is a problem for such a money is time society.
Those of you who have managed to squirrel something away for retirement would live an average length of a life. The more you squirrel away, the longer you live.
If you are an entrepreneur I see three tracks. You lose all of it and thus burn out your life early. Or you do as well as the average and have a nice life. Or you do well above average and live a super long life.
Many would want to be an entrepreneur because of the potential payoff. The burning out early is not so good, but the other two possibilities are nice. Live an average lifespan but be your own boss. Or live a huge lifespan.
I hope Elon Musk isn’t in this society with his current ridiculous amount of wealth. If he lived a super long life, he would just have more and more babies. Children should be a large drain on wealth as they are in our present society. Who is going to pick up after them and send them to school? The parents should have to foot the bill.
Because of his many, many, many, children Elon Musk would not be the most long lived. Someone with no children or other obligations and is a successful entrepreneur would almost be able to live indefinitely. Given copyright law where the copyright exists past the creator’s life, this might be able to keep someone alive forever. That would give credence to saying a work is timeless.
For society to function, though, these people living forever still would have to follow the rules. Thus we would have jail or hard time which could even be thought of as negative time. It would take time off your life. And you wouldn’t be allowed to make money while you are incarcerated.
Wouldn’t things be so much easier if all we had to worry about was money to live a long life? But instead we have to worry about things that can kill us, depression, disease, pandemics, stress, etc.
In today’s world, with all his money and even with some possible expensive life lengtheners, Elon Musk will not outlive the rest of us. I bet he won’t even make it to one hundred. But we shall see. Money doesn’t equate to time just yet.
