What We Need To Know About Time

November is delicious when we get an extra hour of sleep. And today is torture because we lost it.

As a result, we are more aware of the time than most days.

Let’s take a look.

Six Facts About Time

1. AGE

Your age depends on the speed of time.

According to Albert Einstein’s theory of relativity, gravity affects the speed of time. As a result, where the pull of gravity is stronger, like near the center of the earth, time moves more slowly. Consequently, the people who live in mile-high Boulder, Colorado could be .17 milliseconds older than those of us at sea level.

Similarly, if you lived for 30 years on Mount Everest, you would be .91 milliseconds older:

2. LOCATION

Close to 20% of the world’s population keep the same time. Then, elsewhere, we become more fragmented (UTC=Universal time Coordinated):

3. DAYLIGHT SAVING TIME

Approximately one third of the world’s countries are partially or entirely on Daylight Saving Time. Like the U.S., many switch between DST and Standard Time:

4. THE SWITCH

At least 20 U.S. states want permanent DST. First though, they need the U.S. Congress to say it’s okay:

5. PHYSIOLOGY

To all of this I would add that some of us are larks, others are night owls, and those in between are doves. But our morning or night preferences and other physiological programming can be offset or upset by the time society has selected:

6. TIME USE

During each 24-hour cycle, we use our time for work, rest, and leisure:

Our Bottom Line: Opportunity Cost

As economists, we can always return to opportunity cost. Defined as the sacrificed alternative of a decision, the opportunity cost of time is what we did not do.

Identifying time as cost is the perfect way to remind ourselves that economics is about much more than money. It is about the cost of every decision or policy or contract. Only when we recognize cost can we make wise decisions.

My sources and more: Trying to move away from our usual DST vs. Standard time debate, we focused on what Pew said about the world. Then from there, we went to Our World in Data, Statista, and The Washington Post. But meanwhile, our best source for DST info is always timeanddate.

Please note that several of today’s sentences were in a past econlife post.