For the past seven months, the economists have been worrying about deflation, that condition where goods become too plentiful and money too scarce. On the other hand, the consumer feels that the prices of everything are going up. Everything important: property taxes, auto insurance, medical insurance co-pays, college costs, gasoline, plumbers, etc. But no one seems to be examining an entirely different kind of inflation: the inflation of your time. If time is money, each individual unit of your time is buying less and less – which means you time is suffering a serious inflation. If this is hard to see, just connect the dots. -
The doctor once spent 20 minutes with you on each visit. That has dropped in many areas to three minutes per visit. If the price is the same, that's a time inflation of about 600%.
When you call a business or government institution, it is almost impossible to get a real, live person anymore. Instead you have to go through all kinds of digital instructions. Many automated calls take over five minutes, compared with the old operator variety which went through in less than a minute. That's about a 400% time inflation, not counting the aggravation factor. There was a time you could buy tools and toys in ready-to-go condition. The manufacturer or retailer did the assembly. But now you have to do it. Hours that used to be spent enjoying Christmas are now spent in gift assembly. Christmas shows one of the worst conditions of time inflation. (The main reason cushy toys and teddy bears are so popular is because they require no assembly). When you needed a blouse, you once went to the department store and found all the blouses in one place. Shopping was easy. But now that department stores are collections of boutiques with blouses scattered all over several floors, it takes forever to find something. A 20-minute browsing now takes almost an hour. Finding clothing that fits now takes enormous amounts of time since clothing manufacture moved overseas. It used to be, if you ware a perfect size 6, you could go to any store and find many selections that fit. But now, clothing labeled size "6" may vary from size 4 to size 10. And the way clothing is cut may vary considerable within the sizes. For men, a 2XL sports shirt will either be tight or excessively large, depending on the brand. The time taken in shopping and mail order returns is horrendous. Going to the drugstore for prescriptions is now a difficult situation. Monday and Friday lines are long and slow-moving. In the last few years, prescription orders have doubled but the number of pharmacists remains about the same. That means harried pharmacists provide more consumer waiting time and more prescription errors. Back in the day, a trip to the hospital emergency room might entail a half-hour wait (longer on Friday and Saturday nights). But now the normal wait has been expanded to five hours in many markets. You are spending more time in doctors' offices as our health care givers triple- and quadruple-book appointments to avoid the dreaded downtime. It helps the doctor – but creates a tremendous time inflation for patients. To save costs and cope with the growing shortage of nurses, hospitals are expanding the patient/nurse ratio. Where nurses used to be assigned five patients, the number is now six. As we move toward a ratio of seven patients per nurse, time inflation rages, care is diminished, nurses burn out and quit the profession – and the patient is put at increasing risk. Two decades ago, a traveler could get to the airport 10 minutes before his flight left. But now we have huge airports to get around, multiple security checks and substantially reduced human service. The old 10 minutes has been changed to two hours in many airports. That's a time inflation of 1,100%. In many states, you must sit in long lines as your car goes through the annual fuel emissions test. That's time you never had to spend before. Corporate downsizing since March 2000 has resulted in tremendous time inflation for employees. Those overpaid CEOs have downsized the workers without downsizing the work. The result? People are working longer hours without commensurate compensation. That is a major time inflation for those working longer hours. With time inflation raging, people have been forced into incredible levels of multitasking, especially working women who still bear the brunt of housework and child care. Their personal activities have been moved from the home to the automobile. On the way to work, women eat breakfast, apply makeup, brush their hair, review business notes and work the phones. Some even read books behind the wheel in slow-moving expressway traffic. Many middle-class families enjoying two incomes are finding it increasingly difficult to save money, as they are forced to buy expensive home services and high-cost convenience products which save the time once available to the average family. Research shows that the vast majority of working adults are sleep-deprived, which results in greater irritation, bad manners, reduced work performance and even early memory loss. The raging time inflation prevents most working people from getting the required eight hours.
As you connect the dots, you too may come to the conclusion that there is an incredible time inflation in America which is affecting the entire economy.
The economists think department stores are suffering because of price. The truth of the matter is that no one has the time to spend in them anymore. |
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