Benjamin Franklin's Advice to a Young Tradesman

January 18, 2011 6:53 AM

Always remember that time is money.

Franklin's yearly Poor Richard's Almanack was a bestseller in the American colonies and his sayings have infiltrated our bourgeois consciousness. Max Weber was obsessed with using them to demonstrate the pure (protestant) capitalist soul, but I think Franklin was mostly having a laugh.

posted by Philosopher's Beard (22 comments total)

Thanks! This'll really help me in my letterpress business.
posted by box at 7:00 AM on January 18, 2011 [3 favorites]

That all sounds haaaaard.
posted by dudekiller at 7:01 AM on January 18, 2011 [2 favorites]

No, this is Franklin having a laugh.
posted by The 10th Regiment of Foot at 7:05 AM on January 18, 2011 [7 favorites]

Angelfire! Site of my first (non-school) homepage!
posted by Eideteker at 7:07 AM on January 18, 2011 [2 favorites]

Great read before my first class of the semester, finance.
posted by Wanderlust88 at 7:09 AM on January 18, 2011

Benjamin Franklin, the only President of the United States who
was never President of the United States. - FS
posted by hal9k at 7:13 AM on January 18, 2011 [5 favorites]

c = 299,792,458 m/$
posted by dances_with_sneetches at 7:26 AM on January 18, 2011 [2 favorites]

*sips organic coffee, reads, ponders wonderful, misspent life*
posted by weapons-grade pandemonium at 7:31 AM on January 18, 2011 [3 favorites]

Benjamin Franklin, who's birthday was yesterday IIRC. HAPPY BFB-DAY.
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 7:34 AM on January 18, 2011

Time is money [friend].

I hate those stupid goblins.
posted by blue_beetle at 7:38 AM on January 18, 2011 [4 favorites]

[inserts long screed on how time is not money in various parts of the world but wanders off instead to find a Laphroig]
posted by infini at 7:53 AM on January 18, 2011

Before I read this, I'd like to echo Eideteker's amazement that Angelfire is still a thing.
posted by Maaik at 8:04 AM on January 18, 2011

Wise words!
posted by VickyR at 8:15 AM on January 18, 2011

I was going to snark ("time is money something something best things in life are free"), but on the other hand Franklin used his money to retire at 42 (at a time when the average life expectancy was 35 or 40) and lived to be 84. That's like retiring at the age of 12 nowadays.
posted by The Card Cheat at 8:17 AM on January 18, 2011 [3 favorites]

Franklin used his money to retire at 42 (at a time when the average life expectancy was 35 or 40) and lived to be 84. That's like retiring at the age of 12 nowadays.

Wouldn't that be more like retiring at 80 and living to 150?
posted by The 10th Regiment of Foot at 9:53 AM on January 18, 2011 [1 favorite]

Time is money, and the exchange rate varies throughout one's life. But: you can always make more money, and you can never make more time.
posted by RikiTikiTavi at 10:36 AM on January 18, 2011 [1 favorite]

I was going to snark ("time is money something something best things in life are free"), but on the other hand Franklin used his money to retire at 42 (at a time when the average life expectancy was 35 or 40) and lived to be 84. That's like retiring at the age of 12 nowadays.

No, it wasn't, The Card Cheat. If you survived early childhood, your life expectancy was rather close to today's.
posted by IAmBroom at 12:02 PM on January 18, 2011 [1 favorite]

Benjamin Franklin is my hero, don't get me wrong, but wasn't Poor Richard's Almanack meant to serve the joint purposes of Reader's Digest and toilet paper?
posted by StickyCarpet at 12:12 PM on January 18, 2011 [1 favorite]

Are you poo-pooing Poor Richard's, StickyCarpet?
posted by The 10th Regiment of Foot at 1:00 PM on January 18, 2011 [2 favorites]

How much time did I just waste reading this? I mean, how much money did it cost me?
posted by Chuffy at 1:55 PM on January 18, 2011

I initially thought this was a Ferengi-related post. And now, after a little research, I cannot believe "time is money" is not one of the Rules of Acquisition.
posted by lesli212 at 1:56 PM on January 18, 2011 [1 favorite]

"Before I read this, I'd like to echo Eideteker's amazement that Angelfire is still a thing."

Suck it, everyone who ever told me to ditch it for geocities!
posted by Eideteker at 2:07 PM on January 18, 2011 [1 favorite]