Time

Time is present in every human action as a means that must be economized. (See here for many definitions.)

All human life takes place in time.

Production and Time

When a human being decides to act in order to attain an end, it can be com­pletely attained only at some point in the future. A man’s time is always scarce, his time on earth is limited. Whichever ends he chooses to satisfy, there are others that must re­main unsatisfied.

For every action there can be defined:

• a period before the beginning of the action
• the point in time when the action begins
• the period during which the action occurs
• the point at which the action ends
• and the period after the end of the action.

The period from the beginning to the end of action is called the period of production. It is composed of the working time (when labor energy is spent ) and maturing time (where labor is not spent; long maturing periods are for example in agriculture or aging of wine). Production itself can have any number of stages, each taking time.

Time preference

All people prefer a given end to be achieved sooner rather than later. This is the universal fact of time preference. The further in the future the attainment of the end appears to be, the less preferable it is. The less waiting time, the more preferable is the end.

It may be called the preference for present satisfaction over future satisfaction or present good over future good, provided the same satisfaction (or "good") is compared over periods of time.

It is sometimes objected, that future goods may be more preferred. For example, in winter will a man care little for ice, but will crave to have it in summer. But a good is not an item with certain material properties. The good "ice-in-the-summer" provides different (and greater) satisfactions than "ice-in-the-winter", they are different goods. In this case, different satisfactions are being compared, while the physical property of the thing may be the same.