Time Arbitrage Would Include Utilitarian Benefits

Are utilitarian outcomes a helpful way to think about time arbitrage potential? After all, it's no simple matter to decipher what might generate the greatest good for the greatest number, given the complex circumstance of modern day economies. Not only have individual interests diverged even in (relatively) single cultures, income levels are now subject to extreme variance as well. These societal differences make representative democracies difficult to maintain, when different groups end up competing for the limited options of government revenue. This is especially a concern, when it comes to already existing supply side limits for time based product.

Time arbitrage could ultimately reduce some of the pressure, by created decentralized markets for services which would not have to rely on government revenue. In local markets for time value, better alignment of common interests could also encourage a greater degree of services coordination. The result? More market induced supply and demand for all participants, would generate the greatest amount of mutually desired activity for the greatest number. In other words, a utilitarian outcome which is otherwise difficult to achieve, especially in centralized economies such as the U.S. with populations in the hundreds of millions.

Mutual time management - that which creates space for individual priorities - could gradually help reduce the market losses which accrue to aggregate time value in centralized settings. When merit requires costly human capital investments just to get things done, the resulting skills arbitrage tends to cancel out the service market potential which millions of individuals could otherwise contribute. Indeed, when the time of individuals is mostly perceived as a cost, instead of a component of wealth building potential, people who inadvertently end up on the sidelines are often perceived as having zero marginal productivity potential. This is hardly an optimal result!

Skills arbitrage also became a problem from a utilitarian standpoint, by positioning "advantaged" human capital for time based product so as to create tyrannies of minorities over majorities. In the process, the resulting supply side limits has led to employment uncertainties which have proven difficult for both monetary policy or fiscal policy to address.

One of the most positive aspects of free markets, is when they can provide what also translates into the greatest good for the greatest number. This extensive contribution to utilitarian outcomes, should be ample proof, how non tradable sector activity could also benefit from a similar free market approach - one which allows time value a more complete economic role. All the more so, since free markets have often proven a simpler utilitarian approach, than countless policy efforts which tend to miss the mark in terms of utilitarian policy outcomes.

There is no reason, why the market potential of aggregate time value should have to remain so compromised. By creating reciprocal wealth at the outset, individuals can increase the dynamism of service markets which in turn could extend to millions more citizens than is presently feasible. Even though the greatest good for the greatest number is important as ever, it is no longer a simple matter for governments to achieve utilitarian outcomes on their own. By creating the greatest economic activity possible for the greatest number, time arbitrage could embrace utilitarian principles without necessitating additional taxation burdens.