The Money Value of Time

[Scot Griffin]

A CasP critic Jonathan quoted in a recent tweet made reference to “the time value of money.” For a variety of reasons, the construction of this phrase struck me as inverted.  What matters in capitalism is the money value of time, not the time value of money.

Capitalists measure value by their relative annualized rates of return (which CasPers typically refer to as the “discount rate”).  What is a rate of return other than an expression of the money value of time?  What is capitalization other than the monetization of time?

Today, by way of a tweet by Colin Drumm, I found Sean Capener’s recently published dissertation.  Apparently, according to Capener, the medieval Christian prohibition on usury was based on the objection that lending money at interest amounted to selling time itself.  Anyway, Capener’s dissertation looks like an interesting place to explore the concept of “the money value of time” and how it relates to capital as power.

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[Colin Drumm]

I believe the critic in question is Jamie Merchant, who is a sort of dogmatic follower of Moishe Postone, the arch idealist of 20th century marxism

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