First let us understand what Poverty is. You are poor when you cannot afford to sell your time and services for sufficient price to buy the products and services you need and rich to the extent you can afford to buy not only that bur also, those others you desire.

Do not confuse self-sufficiency with contentment. Self-sufficiency is poverty, accepting a lower quality or lesser quantity of goods than you can get by trading what you make best with others for what they make best.

Contentment is richness, it is recognition that ‘Enough is Enough’ as one does not seek or desire anything more than what one already possesses.

Life in those days, especially in rural areas, did not really allow for the differences in wealth between the Master and his servant to stand out so much. The Master slept on a cot and the servant slept on a mat on the floor, mostly in the verandah of the same house. When out walking in the fields, the Master too walked barefoot through the same mud in which the servant did, only perhaps the servant carried his slippers and fetched him water to wash his feet with when they reached dry ground.

Ofcourse, in the cities the differences were somewhat more apparent, but in rural areas there were then no FMCG products to differentiate much between them.

Today, Social-media and the constant barrage of ubiquitous Advertisements, highlighting differences between people in what possessions they buy and how they live, seeking to entice consumers, such not so meaningful differences became visible everywhere, but in recent decades, education and talent has once again begun to reduce the appreciation of such apparent differences.

I’m sure you will all agree with me, that today we live in the most prosperous of times in comparison to all the ages of History.

Let me prove to you that today even a lowly salesgirl/clerk in a shop or even a village assistant, lives a life of better quality, with a greater choice of goods and services, than even most of the Nobles or actually even the Rajas / Kings of old. Please think, if the King/Raja wanted a service to be provided by someone, he would mostly need to employ him full time and also, provide for his family. Cooks, scribes, cleaners, tailors, barbers, gardeners, maintenance staff and so on. Today we need to only pay for the small fraction of the time of such service providers as we really need, at a far lower cost and with no further commitment and we have a greater choice.

Wealth led to insecurity of property and life, today we live in more secure times and our wealth is better retained to be spent as we choose.

To recognize the vast improvement in our lives over those in the past we need to have a common standard to measure it by. TIME is the real measure of the value of everything.

TIME- 86,400 seconds was and is given to everyone each day. We cannot increase or reduce this measure. So, anything that allows one to meet one’s basic needs and do one’s essential tasks in a shorter time is the only way, in effect, that can add to one’s useful Time. We can use this TIME for our Family, or to obtain or attain something even if it be only leisure or relaxation or wastefully doing nothing. Such Free choice is a critical element of Happiness.

Hence, the TIME spent in working to obtain or pay for something you need is the value of that something. It is thus clear that it is TIME that is the currency of value of everything, and progress is measured in how productively and effectively you can use it to make your life more comfortable, convenient and happy.

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