On Dec 3, 2:08*pm, "Robert Green" wrote:
"BobR" wrote in message

news:938db78c-73b5-4a78-822d-
On Dec 1, 4:10 pm, DerbyDad03 wrote:

If your net worth did indeed increased by $35 after cleaning the yard,
please tell us where the money came from. There has to be a debit
someplace to offset the credit, unless you printed the money yourself

Had I paid an idiot like you to do my yard for me, then my net worth
would have been reduced by the $35.

Clear foul. *Sigh. *Derby's not an idiot and frankly, it's pretty sad to see
someone not only be dead wrong about something, but rude to people who are
simply trying to educate him.

$35 dollars saved is $35 dollars earned.

No, it's not. *Bob, I'm kind of feeling bad for you. *Have you ever taken an
economics or bookkeeping course? *It doesn't sound as if you have because
aside from Ben Franklin homilies, earning and saving are two completely
different economic activities, as people have been trying to explain to you.

When you do something like mowing the lawn yourself, you're not earning
money. *(In fact, you're spending money for gas and for the wear and tear on
the equipment and more.) *But just to make it simple, we'll say you're not
spending that money mowing your own lawn. *In fact, no money appears
anywhere in the economic event of YOU mowing the lawn.

What you are spending is your time. *If you could be making $100 an hour
consulting but instead mow the lawn for $70 an hour, are you still making
$70 or are you losing $30?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opportunity_cost

"Opportunity cost is the cost of any activity measured in terms of the value
of the best alternative that is not chosen (that is foregone)"

If you chose to mow your lawn yourself, you can no longer use that time to
work extra hourse at work, do consulting, or break into your neighbor's
garages to steal their tools, if that's your thing.

If your time had no other possible value, then maybe you could feel that you
earned $70, but even then it wouldn't be true. *To make or "earn" money in
the first place, you have to increase your net worth, not just conserve it.