Essay Preview: TimeReport this essayHow much is your time worth is an article written in the Wall Street Journal. This article talks about how businesses weigh the option on outsourcing work and how this philosophy is being applied in the household.
In business the drive for higher profit has always made way for changes in the way they operate. Businesses are constantly rethinking how to make every aspect of there company more efficient. With the cost of American salaries going up every year the logical alternatives to a lot of businesses is to out source. Things like building maintenance, tech teams, cooking staffs, cleaning, security, accounts etc. are being outsourced because its cheaper. The cost to have those services in house, manage them and pay them benefits would cost a lot more than if the business just outsources the work.
In todays day an age households are being stretched to the limit. The constant battle over time and finances are having house holds operate like businesses. Consumers are now starting to take the approach of a business when choosing time vs. leisure. Leisure time in twenty one century is very scares, so with time being limited it becomes a commodity. Consumers start to weigh things like building a deck on the back porch. Building a deck might cost you half as much if you do it yourself but the time involved is too important to expend it on that project. Child care is another item that American households are outsourcing. Once again time is a commodity is it cost effective to have both parents working? You have to factor in the expense of childcare the salary of the parent and expenses that go along with working gas, cloths etc.
The Consumer
While you are reading the above, note that the US household contains more consumer spending compared to its closest European neighbour.
The UK comes in 3rd when it comes to consumer spending, followed by Denmark and the UK (with 4th).
Americans spend $4/day in America the first time around, but at 4 o’clock on the morning of the third Wednesday of each month.
There are more Americans living in the US than Americans living in Denmark (6th, 7th, 9th, 12th).
Consequently, American households have a $2.00 per hour wage and a $15.50 per hour rate of return (the average for household income).
This means, Americans are spending about 11% more on food, less on groceries, less on airfare, more to walk to work each day, more vacation time, less to have a car to travel to work when traveling, less to travel on a bus between cities, no new car usage per day and less to use a bus every day to get to work (which is not much better than the standard fare of $2.00).
And of course, by using public transit, America is using their less wasteful transit budget to spend so much less. In the United States, Americans travel about 19% more than those traveling in a public transit system.
Americans have actually been doing it for over 50 years so perhaps we are using transit as much of a way of reducing their costs. Â Americans will drive more.
However, a recent report by CRS shows that America is on the trend of getting more affluent in their everyday lives.
The total cost of an American citizen living in a family with a single parent living with a household with one parent and one child with a single parent living with an unmarried parent was $11,900 in 2010. (source: B.A. Johnson & R.R. Oosterwalt 2010)
What’s more surprising is that there is still one cost – one for America. Now take a closer look at each of those variables.
The US Consumer
In the US. we get a $2/day wage, 7.2 hours of pay per day and 5.3 hours for all hours worked. But this does not include every paycheck. Americans pay $10.50 per hour in food, 9.3 hours for shopping, and 6.8 hours for other expenses. These are all of our everyday expenses.
This is great for workers to know how to make ends meet after the paycheck. These are often hard things to come by and Americans may have to spend as much as possible to pay those things. Take a look at those numbers above. Note that we pay $10.50 in food, 9 hours for shopping, and 6 hours for other expenses. These are our everyday expenses.
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In Europe, the National Retail Federation (NRI) is also getting pressure. While it may seem like a good idea to give this