Money is life energy.
The real cost of money is the life energy (time and effort) we put towards making it. This is a core principle in your money or your life dominguez robin.
Thoreau thought the same but applied it to all—both things and activities. He said:
the cost of a thing is the amount of what I will call life which is required to be exchange for it, immediately or in the long run.
Thoreau did not simply preached a rejection of economic excesses. He advocated that each of us calculate the exact amount of pure living we are compromising because of money, possessions, and luxury.
Related
References
Gros, F. (2014). A Philosophy of Walking. Verso.
What impresses is the form of the argument. For Thoreau’s obsession with calculation runs deep. He does not say: let us reject economic weighing of quantities in favour of a pure idea of quality. He says: keep calculating, keep weighing. What exactly do I gain, or lose? What do I lose in pure living when I strive to earn more money? What it costs rich people to be rich, working, worrying, watching, never letting go.