dtcwee: The Value of Nothing

You miss 100% of the stupid decisions you don't make. Negative self-talk goes like this: I missed out on that opportunity because I'm too pushy/meek/vain/stupid/whatever. Astronaut, doctor, parent. There's no end to what could have been, but for some personal flaw.  The infinite number of missed opportunities far outweighs the finite number of wins attributable to your better characteristics.

You are probably selling your time for less than it is worth. The personal value of your time gets scarcer as you age and therefore more valuable. However employers and everyone else values what you output with your time, so unless you (spend time to) increase your effectiveness, the value of your time to them stays the same. Let's dive into this.

How closely Inflation tracks Unemployment, Wages, Immigration, Interest Rates (and Debt), Trade, Currency, and Industrial Action, in Australia. Inflation scares a lot of people who remember the 1960s and 1970s with its  double-digit price rises eroding savings, investments, and wage gains. Since then, however, inflation and wages growth in the developed world has been low. Younger cohorts who haven't experienced rocketing prices (except in housing, education, and health) clamour for greater social assistance, particularly as the COVID-19 pandemic drags on, horrifying their elders who understandably fear that government largesse will re-awaken the inflation monster. Putting aside whether and how much inflation is desirable, many causes have been suggested, including unemployment, wages, immigration, central bank interest rates, the availability of debt, trade, currency strength, and the bargaining power of labour. All are compelling theories, ...

Skilled migrants to Australia are apparently not doing what they were meant to : get jobs. 🦘👷 [MacroBusiness (MB)]: The notion that Australia’s migration program was ever ‘skilled’ is debunked by the empirical data from the Department of Home Affairs’ Continuous Survey of Australia’s Migrants. This survey shows that recent permanent migrants experienced higher rates of unemployment and are paid less than the general population: And the government has been sitting on this. Tsk. Tsk. Before borders reopen, let's use the opportunity to re-introduce a little conspiratorial thinking: [MB]: Thus, this ‘skilled’ migration program is actually undercutting local workers and adding to Australia’s unemployment queue. As such, it helped drive Australian wage growth to record lows : How, exactly? Migrant unemployment higher than the general population's implies that employers are preferring to employ local Australians (at presumably higher wages). If migrants are offering to work at sca...

Lifetime earnings is another way to investigate the commercial advantage that tertiary education can bring. I prefer this measure to wage gaps because career-income paths are not smooth for everyone. From the Social Security Administration in 2015: After controlling for key socio-demographic variables that influence earnings and the probability of college completion, the differences in lifetime earnings by educational attainment are reduced, but still substantial. Regression estimates show that men with bachelor's degrees would earn $655,000 more in median lifetime earnings than high school graduates. Women with a bachelor's degrees would earn $450,000 more in median lifetime earnings than high school graduates.

Proving God is a douche, one day at a time.

The value of time is not constant, nor linear. Imminent time is exponentially more valuable than distant time. This ' Discounted time flow ' is easy to gloss over, hard to quantify, but radical. Time discounts money . $1 a year from now is worth less than $1 today. This is not necessarily inflation, or a conspiracy to devalue your savings. To make up for the risk of not receiving it, and the opportunities you forego, I would need to offer more than $1 in return for your $1 today. Time is similarly a resource, so proximity should similarly affect its value. If we expect compound growth rates for future money, we can expect the value of time to decay drastically the further it is into the future relative to now.