Time should not be wasted because it can be used productively to earn money; efficiency and speed in business are valuable.
This phrase was popularized by Benjamin Franklin in his 1748 essay 'Advice to a Young Tradesman,' though the concept existed earlier. It became a cornerstone of American business philosophy and the Protestant work ethic.
Franklin's phrase fundamentally changed how Western culture thinks about time, transforming it from a natural flow into a commodity to be managed and optimized. This commodification of time is so complete that we now struggle to conceive of time outside economic frameworks, even in leisure activities.
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