Let us take a deep dive into of the role of Money vs. Value. Money is something that doesn’t have any intrinsic Value; you can't eat it and probably don’t want to cover your walls in dollar bills as decoration. Money is a means to an end, an exchange mechanism used to acquire something, mostly of value.
So how do we assign Value? Most think of value as spending as little as possible on an object or goal. Others see it as the most efficient way to accomplish a lot from their resources and expertise. Following THIS reasoning, we can list a hierarchy of value, or separate the most important areas that money cannot actually purchase directly - Health and Time. These are so important that they are beyond our concept of money.
To begin with, everyone has varying degrees and issues with health. Everything we do, our actions, thoughts and feelings, are all affected by health. One disease or one injury and our lives are altered. If we have a loved one with a health Issue, our lives are occupied with care and our TIME is refocused. Time and Health are related in this way. The underlying mission of the Earth Lifter tool is to Focus on making a healthy change, a change that adds value. Let’s begin with the Joseph Campbell quote, “If you want to change the world, Change the Metaphor” Let’s explore what that means.
This section is about Value. Technically it is called the “economics of engineering”, or basically, considers how we spend money in the framework of “INVESTING”.
If we are thinking of spending as investing, what are the most valuable assets to invest in? Health and Time. These are the intrinsic, fundamental, and precious treasures that we cannot directly acquire. They exist primarily in the realm of metaphor, and we can only approximate using these gems.
If this reasoning makes sense so far, then the greatest use of money is to somehow ‘capture’, acquire or best utilize time and health. What is physically the richest activity we can perform? Gardening.
Most of the diseases with accelerating rates are obesity, diabetes, cancers, heart disease, strokes, and inflammatory disorders. All are directly linked to what we eat and how much we exercise, walk, or at least keep moving.
In a previous blog we discussed the top-line reasons why we don’t garden. Most have to do with the hardest 90% of tasks that involve LIFTING.
On one hand the Earth Lifter (ELT) tool eliminates the difficult, onerous aspects of Gardening and Landscaping, which is another target of this solution On the other hand we agree that eating fresh whole foods, exercising, being in sunlight and nature, enhancing our Immune System, saving money on groceries, having a ‘deposit in the survival bank’, stress reduction by feelings of happiness and confidence, enabling activities that were previously unavailable due to disabilities or previous frailties that now become available when using this tool, our Investment returns, then why not?The Earth Lifter is a purpose built REAL TOOL, made to last, not something that breaks at inopportune times, not something you have to replace, it is an expert tool for all day work like Hobby/Market farming, special landscaping tasks, general gardening jobs. Everyone who needs to lift stuff out of dirt needs this tool.
A tool should do the hard work, a tool should prevent injury, a tool should save you time. YOU shouldn’t be THE tool.
The Earth Lifter is a ‘go to’ tool, meaning, everybody that works with plants and soil runs into a weird or unplanned problem. A rock or weed or bush all of a sudden is in your planned work area. If you have an ELT, in seconds the problem is solved. With minor effort and no pain it is very satisfying ‘fixing a problem’. You will find dozens of ‘problems’ that just become another reason to exercise. This is what changing the Paradigm means. At first it sounds crazy, but think about a previous problem (a rock or weed) and view it as a chance to exercise. Yes, I’m suggesting a mental realignment, changing the framework of how you view work and transforming it into healthy exercise. ”Why not”?
Back to Value, and the ultimate value of good health and good use of your Time. When you enjoy your job, it really isn’t work. Investments bring dividends. What better ‘dividend’ is there than precious Health and Time? Contractors charge by the time they spend. Time is converted to an amount based on Labor X Time = Cost. If there is efficiency for the laborers’ time, then that becomes more profit or lower expenses. However, the consequence of health-related issues is expressed in Time; if a worker hurts himself then all discussions about work, profit and time change. The ELT was designed to use physics, geometry and mechanical advantage in a correct spinal orientation. If used properly, it prevents injury. How do you Value Prevention? You can measure Time as a factor of Value when you do more in less time. But the Health aspect of preventing injury, which can only be implied, is an enormous benefit.
Having this special tool, that was built to last for years and do numerous jobs, built to make effort one fourth of traditional forks, built to not injure you, made to enable many disabled or fragile folks to once again participate in their favorite activity, made to make difficult landscaping work safer and more efficient, that is the definition of Value.
Value is having delicious potatoes, garlic, blueberries, asparagus, broccoli, herbs, tomatoes, beets, a hundred gourmet delights, out the back door. Saving grocery money, making great dishes, food security, growing and selling foods, and flowers, making money from a hobby, sharing your bounty with friends and neighbors. You can’t place a Value on this priceless bounty. How do you Value Happiness, Confidence, or Health?