Both consumption and production take time. These are respectively the production period and the consumption period. The production period must precede the consumption period. Time also is measured in terms of human characteristics. These characteristics are expressions of the restrictions of the human condition and result in the following measures of time related to economic production: lifetime, work day and work week. In the present we plan for the future but use what exists from the past.
Production completed in the past gives us a set of land and labor skills that can be consumed in the present consumption period. It also provides the set of production functions that can be used to produce over the next production period. Land and labor that are not consumed in the present consumption period are available for future consumption periods.
One must plan for future consumption by using time available in the current production period. The future can be imagined but can never be completely predicted. This creates risk.
There is always the risk that production can not be completed as planned. This can be due to natural disaster, incorrect production functions or the land and labor required are inadequate in terms of quality or quantity. Agreements may not be executed due to fraud and theft, or sickness in the case of labor.
A lifetime is the planning period for an individual human. It can be divided into stages, each with its own characteristics regarding dependency and productivity. The major stages of life for an individual can fall into the following categories:
| Age Category | Years Spanning | Duration In Years | Dependent On Others | Economically Active |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Baby | Birth to 1 | 1 | x | |
| Child | 1 to 6 | 5 | x | |
| Student | 6 to 18 | 12 | x | |
| Apprentice | 18 to 25 | 7 | x | |
| Child Rearing | 25 to 58 | 25 | x | |
| Pre-Retirement | 50 to 65 | 15 | x | |
| Retirement | 65 to 80 | 15 | x | |
| Assisted Living | 80 to 85 | 5 | x | |
| End of Life Care | 85 to death | 2+ | x |
Notes:
Dependent on others: Requires the assistance of others to perform some of the activities of daily living. There is an age specific group that includes children and the elderly. There is another group that is not age specific. This group includes the disabled and people in institutions such as prisons and mental hospitals.
Economically Active: Able to sell labor skills for medium of exchange and obtain enough medium of exchange in return to cover living expenses or have sufficient investment income to support chosen standard of living.
Humans are constrained by the natural cycles of the environment and their biological requirements for sleep, food and procreation. This has resulted in the generally accepted work day of 8 to 12 hours, a work week of 35 to 48 hours of 4 to 6 work days. At least one but in most cases two days of non-work per week is considered usual for long term production efficiencies. A work year also has allowances for about 2 to 6 weeks of non-work weeks for use at the discretion of the worker. Work is usually constrained to daylight hours. Non-daylight hour work is considered to be sub-optimal but in some cases necessary.
The reason work is constrained to these general rules is biological: people need to rest, sleep and eat to regain the strength lost through work. Efficiency as measured in production per hour is lost if more time is spent working than the generally accepted norms. As these are norms, there are exceptions due to emergencies and other conditions. Some people are biologically capable of working more hours than others. Also the length of the work week is a subjective choice of the individual person. Some humans prefer medium of exchange more than time off and are willing to work more and have less free time than others.
The consumption period is the time that is not used for production. This would be time set aside for sleep, eating, child raising, leisure activities, etc. In general a day is divided into consumption and production periods based on the customs of a particular cultural group. Most societies also divide a week into days set aside primarily for production and ones for consumption. There are always exceptions such as holidays shared by a cultural group which normally fall on a day primarily reserved for production and vacation and personal business days which fall on production days. Sickness and disability days are consumption periods that fall on production days. Sickness and disability are unwanted but need to be provisioned and anticipated.
Without time, production or consumption cannot occur. Because the future can not be predicted with certainty, there is always the risk that plans for either consumption or production can not be completed. Time spent working is constrained by biological and environmental considerations.
Copyright 2014-2019 Richard A. Cornell, PE