Culture and Time

The phrase, "Time is a gift," seems much less harsh than "Time is money." Although they both apply to our society, "time is a gift," can be appreciated more. We do not have forever on Earth, our time is short and we can not be sure of just how short. "Time as money" just shows how our society is so focused on material things and our main focus is to make money so we can be happy. As mentioned before, it really does reflect our culture's greed because our economy is capitalist. Other cultures with different economies do not have the same opinions towards time. With the time is a gift mentality, one feels less obliged to spend their life worrying about wether or not they will be able to buy a second big screen TV and make more time for their loved ones. A negative to the time is a gift phrase could be that people do not worry enough about making their money.

I have a friend who is Chinese and, when I asked her about time compared to how many Americans view it, she said that, though her family does run a business and understands that if time is wasted, so is money, they also make it a big deal to have planned family time. Time is very important to them, as is family. Her words were, "my family does not waste time, whether it is for making money or making sure our family is close and happy." I think that this is a way in which both phrases can be applied to a lifestyle. Because they both deal with not wasting limited time, only for different reasons.