Time Isn't Money: Part 3

Continuing from the United States Declaration of Independence (1776), that all men (people) are created equal, and "are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."

Happiness, or at least the pursuit of it, is subjective, so we can't really measure this in terms of money or time, but we can think of it as the pulse of our society, and the joys of each individual taken altogether. I see that, in spite of our improvements in technology, 'quality of life', standard of living, enormous energy and natural resources consumption (as compared to our contemporaries in other countries), we here in the USA are not necessarily becoming happier, in fact, our lives are complicated and stressful.

Liberty comes at a price, that which you give up for your Security. Take for example various Acts of Congress to pry into our private lives for the sake of National Security, or the silly cameras at intersections for purpose of "safety" when they're really used to tax us via traffic tickets - we give up some Liberties in order to become more secure. I'm not sure there is a balance here. It seems to me that we're giving up more and more liberty for only a marginal improvement in security. When we think of Liberty we think of Freedom. Are we really free? Can we really do what we want, when we want, how we want?

Life. Now here it is. What is life? What is time? What is money? We're created equal, but we don't end up equal. At birth, one might say we highly value your life, the innocent, newborn child, what a blessing. The child grows up, becomes emancipated, and is an adult.

Now what is the value of this adult's life? Has he or she become highly educated? Is he or she an incredible artist? Is he or she a laborer or a doctor? Has he or she invented a cure for cancer or a new way to purify water? Is he or she incarcerated for murder or violence crimes? Is he or she beyond being saved?

I ponder the equation of time equals life and what currency we could use to measure an hour of one's life. Perhaps it's the minimum wage - that we're all equal to at least that basic limit of say $5 per hour for our (unskilled) labors. Perhaps it's a compensation cap on CEO's pay - that at the upper limit of contribution (supposedly) we're worth say $5,000 per hour of our time.

What if we have an unskilled laborer at $5 per hour that, by his virtuous humanity and heroism, runs into a burning building and saves a cap'd out CEO from an untimely death?

What if we have a max'd out CEO burning hundreds of gallons of fuel in his 200' motor yacht every weekend for the sake of hunting endangered sharks in the sea?

I'd love to hear what you think of this idea that time isn't money, but rather time is life ...