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The things that money was originally intended to buy, or make possible, became second to the money itself. Because of this shift in ideology it suddenly made sense to work all day at a job only to pay someone else to watch your kids, do your laundry, cook your food and walk your dog. This way you can have the “freedom” to work all day to earn money, which, in the end, is all spent on the babysitter, grocery store, laundromat and dog walker.

Why not skip work and do these things yourself? Your bank account would never know the difference; in fact you’d probably save money. But the bank accounts of many businesses that depend on your being helpless would probably shrink if you realized this; and this has made all the difference in the world.

How are we lured to the other side to become human consumers rather than human beings? By the one thing that is valued almost as much as money: time. We have been convinced that we can control time; and that we can use our purchasing power to save, waste, gain or lose time.

The above evolution is what set the stage for the birth convenience foods and the quick deterioration of people’s diets as well as the food supply. Most of the reports on how people spend their time in 1985 compared to 1965 indicate women who are not employed now spend less time on food preparation (3.3 hours less per week), and they spend 12.1 hours per week less on housework in general. What are they doing with all of this extra time? According to Professor Joan Gussow at Teacher’s College, they are watching more television — 7.7 more hours a week.

The desire to control time has become intimately linked with the desire for freedom and happiness. The “logic” looks like this: time is limited. The more we can do in less time, the more time we will save. If we save time we can be free and happy. One way to save time is to have other people cook for us (and clean and watch or children). According to this logic, Campbell’s is one of America’s greatest symbols of freedom.

We, men and women alike, need to take a serious look at how we choose to spend our time. How much time do we spend on tasks directly related to sustaining us? A friend of mine was in Africa last year with the Peace Corps. Each day she and the local women walked for three hours to the nearest farm to get vegetables, milk and rice for the entire tribe. A Westerner may find the idea of spending six hours of each day traveling to get food inefficient, yet the average American works eight hours a day to get food on their table.

Does it make sense to spend our time working at a job so that we can pay someone else to do something that we could do for our family and ourselves better and for less money?

These are important questions that may force some of us to reevaluate our lives. I am not suggesting that a woman’s place is in the home — in some situations it may make more sense for the man to stay home and the woman to earn the money. How about sharing the role of money-maker and home-maker by working part-time? There are many creative ways of going about this. The important shift comes when we assess the quality of our time spent rather than how we are compensated for it monetarily. This may reveal some idiosyncrasies and contradictions in the kinds of choices we make.

Last week I worked eight extra hours in order to make some extra money. I made 200 extra dollars. Unfortunately I didn’t have time to cook, which I usually do, so I spent an extra $50 on food that wasn’t very good. I also strained my knee because I was fatigued and had to go to the doctor ,which cost me $100. So, in the end I have 50 extra dollars and a bad knee. Looking back, I would have rather spent less time working and more time cooking and hanging out with friends.

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