Saturday, August 13, 2016

Notes on the Nature of Time Based Services Product

In a sense, time based services product is no different, from product which exists independently of current time value. After all, both are intended for practical or experiential ends, and occasionally both. However, tradable product - thus far - has proven more tangible and quantifiable, than the nature of our human capital.

Perhaps this helps to explain how time based services product is increasingly trapped in a poor market position - one which also stands in the way of long term growth. These forms of product tend to be harshly judged, especially since asymmetric compensation does not directly contribute to wealth. Not only are too many knowledge based services severed from the benefits of free market coordination, their costs and exclusive nature increasingly detract from the efficiency of markets in general.

Time based product is not well represented or dispersed, either in terms of supply or demand. No one really knows how product preferences would be prioritized (as human capital primary wealth) since today's secondary markets for time value are funded solely through discretionary income and redistribution. As such, without a designated marketplace for time value, human capital is not yet capable of functioning as a direct source of wealth creation, or marketplace integration.

Should time value become possible as a primary market option, people could more readily tap aggregate time value, along with the extensive investment human capital requires even in minimal circumstance, for mutual coordination functions. In particular, today's supply and demand problem for knowledge product needs to be addressed, before nations become even more inclined to retreat into mercantilism, as a response to economic stagnation.

Whereas tradable sectors provide production growth via smaller sets of quality time value in relation to other resource capacity, time based product would contribute to productivity with larger sets of quality time value in relation to other time value potential. In knowledge use system settings, coordinated aggregate time value would gradually lead to higher quality knowledge use options. This internal organizational structure realizes productivity gains (minimal service product costs) precisely because it internalizes time based supply and demand for the participating group.

Of course, the hardest part is finding a way to begin the process. After all, exploring the nature of service product potential would feel crude, initially, in contrast to our expectations conditioning for a secondary marketplace which dictates the majority of our service product options. Even though consumers are vocal about product choice, it's not easy to pinpoint precisely how people relate to time based product. Plus the dynamic interaction between individuals for knowledge based production and consumption, does not readily adapt to scale and replicated settings.

Present day arguments for basic income, don't address the fact that gainful employment is one of the most important forms of 21st century time based service product. In some instances, those who advocate for basic income may see passive compensation as a way to "make up" for the lack of meaningful work. Unfortunately, if someone has a great job they know others desire but may never experience, this advocacy makes a certain amount of sense. Which is all the more reason to generate meaningful work on a new set of terms, instead.

Just as personal investment doesn't always match up with desired employment opportunities, so too the logistics problems which make it difficult to coordinate even the most basic time based services with others. All too often, people have to make hard choices regarding time use, because of the ways these travel and time related logistics play out.

How to think about this? Is it possible to work more closely with mutual logistics issues for productive gain? Only consider how corporations have organized groups in recent centuries to carry out time coordinated patterns for supply. What has been missed, is that institutions could design local living and working arrangements not just to facilitate supply coordination for a given product set, but for supply and demand coordination for multiple product sets as well. A purposeful design such as this would assist local groups in overcoming multiple logistical problems that otherwise limit their time based service options - not just in the course of a day, but also a week, month or given year.

Another important factor for time based coordination, are the ways in which time based tasks are differently valued. While some of the differences in valuation are imminently understandable, they still need to be approached in ways that make it possible for people to effectively arbitrage their time in relation to one another. One way to approach this process is noting that families often share tasks of multiple skill levels as a matter of course, in order to accomplish desired ends.

While a strong association with given sets of skills is understandable, this association limits one's options for engagement in any environment geared towards small scale economic complexity. For instance, many forms of today's time investment patterns, automatically limit the circumstance by which one can readily coordinate their time with others. By way of example, the highest valued skills sets of the present, primarily exist in a limited number of regions. This would not be such a negative, were it not for the fact those limitations often involve skill sets for time based services which are sought by millions of individuals beyond those regions.

Wealth is especially associated with spontaneous agglomeration for knowledge based activity. Even though this makes sense, organizational capacity for asymmetric compensation is too limited, in relation to the personal investments required for these knowledge use patterns. Symmetric compensation for time based services product, would make it possible to maintain today's high expectations for human capital. Even though the financial rewards would not be the same, reduced risk and greater economic stability, would more than offset any monetary "loss".

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