03-15-2015, 07:34 PM
(This post was last modified: 03-15-2015, 08:31 PM by BuildingScout.)
(03-15-2015, 07:09 PM)kwliving Wrote: That doesn't count for everyone. If you're able to clear your sidewalk in the allotted time window without missing out on income, it doesn't save you any money.
But you always miss out on income. If you went to the local Tim Hortons and applied for a part time position and sold coffee instead of shoveling snow for the same number of hours you would be about $200-400 dollars richer and that's assuming minimum wage. If instead you log extra hours in the office of almost any profession we are talking double that.
Only someone with a medical condition that made it impossible for them to work wouldn't miss out on income, but then again, they wouldn't be able to shovel the sidewalk to begin with.
Remember just because money didn't explicitly trade hands it doesn't mean you did not lose money.
Addendum:
Recent work by psychologists has charted a set of predictable cognitive errors that lead us to mistakes like eating too much junk food, or saving too little for retirement. These quirks lead us to make similarly predictable errors when deciding where to live, how to live, how to move, and even how to build our cities. The Vancouver transit vote is likely to prove psychologists correct again. By most measures, a “No” result in the plebiscite will make the average person poorer, sicker, less free, more frustrated and, yes, less happy in the long run. Yet this is exactly where the polls show the city is headed.
[...]
This is what psychologists call the focus illusion. We put all our attention on one glaring element and ignore details that are harder to grasp or remember. So most people remember the annual tax they’ll have to pay, and place less value on the thousands of moments where their life will become easier. Most of us have trouble putting fair value on future benefits. If you were stuck in traffic right now and I offered to get you moving for 35¢ you would probably pay up. But [if] you are asked to pay a tax now for benefits that will take years to take shape [they will say no].
http://news.nationalpost.com/2015/03/13/...happiness/