Of all of the commodities and services available to consumers in the market, one of the most precious is never bought or sold explicitly. That good is “more time for ourselves.” Yet time is the one thing that most of us want more of, whether it’s for leisure or some other purpose. What if we could reduce the amount of time we need to accomplish necessary tasks, freeing ourselves to pursue other ends? We can. One of the ways that markets accomplish this feat is through the addition and growth of capital—a man-made means of production—to the production process. Capital makes labor more productive.
If you want to analyze the level or growth of wealth in a nation, one of the best indicators is the amount of available capital, the man-made means of production, its citizens have to work with. Capital-poor countries tend to be poor countries, regardless of their natural resources or human talent. One man plus one shovel equals a drainage ditch, for example, while one hundred men plus no shovels may amount to no ditch at all. Appropriate capital translates into time, in the guise of quicker production and more products and services, and the opportunity for people to achieve more of their goals.
Capital equipment can be fairly simple like a piece of chalk for example, or quite complex, like a hydroelectric power plant. Either one represents a time- and effort-saving step away from more primitive means of accomplishing a desired end. Chalk replaces clay or wax tablets, perhaps, or drawing with a stick in the sand. Hydroelectric power replaces any number of more primitive energy sources like gaslight and wood fires, with greater convenience, safety, and ease for the consumer. Each make the user more productive: consumers can go on to other pursuits all the sooner. They effectively increase the available time in a given hour, day, or lifetime.
I saw the difference that capital makes close-up when I recently replaced the roof on my home. I happen to know that 1) roofing shingles are heavy, 2) ladders are treacherous, and 3) tearing off an existing roof, and replacing it with a brand new one on an average sized home, can easily take a week or more. Even my original roof, done professionally, took at least that long. This time, the old roof came off and the new one went up in just over two days.
As I watched the new roof go on, I realized that working speed had a lot to do with some very handy special equipment. Among other things, the roofers used a platform hoist that I never saw during the original roofing process. The hoist zooms a whole bundle of shingles up a ladder, saving time, labor, and (possibly) a lot of injuries. I got a quick roof replacement; they got to move on to other jobs all the sooner. The more capital-intensive process saved time all around.
Making time less scarce is the implicit objective in many market transactions and innovations. Examples abound: computers, automobiles, microwave ovens, email, and modern health screening procedures all replaced less efficient ways of accomplishing the same ends. Even cosmetic procedures offer time savings of a sort; we can lose weight or get whiter teeth without taking the time to diet or brush diligently, and we can delay or erase the outward signs of ageing without living longer or more health-consciously.
Though time itself is intangible, additions to capital and capital structure (another topic) mean that markets can offer consumers not only products, but the time to enjoy them as well.