Having studied economics anything about systems and the people within those systems interests me. I have recently been thinking a lot about how your class standing can give you access to ways of living that others may not have. I want to touch on the sharing economy and how the companies within that sell convenience to people which impacts the time they can spend on other things like their health both physical and mental and the relationships in one's life.
For those who know me, they know that I am big on convenience whether it what we are choosing to do for the day/night or really anything. I am also a big user of the sharing economy apps such as Postmates, GrubHub, and Instacart. While I have been using these I started to think about how on the surface these seem like nonlife changing apps, you are ordering food from your favorite place to eat on some and on the other you are ordering groceries to your house. If you go a level deeper these apps are allowing people to get their time back that they would have spent cooking or shopping for a premium fee of course. Which is the one thing that class can get you, it can give you the resources and the access to have more of your time back which is an invaluable thing to have. If one adds up over time how much time they saved themselves from outsourcing the labor they otherwise would have had to do the amount would be substantial. Imagine how much time could be spent elsewhere if you lived in a world where all your domestic tasks were outsourced. What else could you be focusing on and doing?
After thinking about how it impacts the lives of those who do use them and have access, I started thinking about how so many people do not have the resources to pay for convenience and how that impacts their quality of life in aggregate. Imagine never outsourcing any of the labor you have in your life and over time what that could do to your life? All of your time is spent on the essentials for survival which could easily cause one to overlook things like their health from a physical standpoint. How many people are just so busy they can't squeeze in time for the gym? How many people are so busy with surviving that they can't fit in time to check in on themselves mentally? I do believe that the lack of access to convenience can be a detriment to peoples lives by not allowing them to purchase any of their time back.
Lastly, imagine how different peoples lives or your life could be if you had the means to strictly live by convenience? Below are apps based around convenience and imagine how someone's quality of life would be impacted if they had access to all or a mix of these? I will also include the base price for each of these apps to see how much it would cost to get this convenience.
Talkspace- Digital Therapy….$196 a month
Instacart- Grocery Delivery…delivery fee is variable but I usually pay $10.00 plus the cost of groceries
Postmates- Food Delivery…delivery fee is usually $4.00
Heal- On Demand Doctor Calls..covered by insurance or $99 a visit
Future- Remote Personal Trainer….$150 a month
Cleanly- On Demand Laundry…delivery fee ranges from $4.99-$7.99
People say money can't buy happiness but it can definitely buy you your time back so you can focus on your happiness.
