We Buy With Money, But Pay With Time — Why I’m Grateful for Progres

Earlier this week, I was doing what I always do in the early mornings — drinking coffee, reading, and easing into the day with a few newsletters from scholars I trust. One of them shared a single line that stopped me in my tracks:

“The time price of a Thanksgiving dinner has fallen 45 percent since 1986.”

Not the dollar price.Not the grocery store receipt.The time price — the number of hours of life it takes the average worker to earn that meal.

That statistic hit me harder than I expected.

We live in a world that constantly tells us things are getting worse. Food is more expensive. Life is harder. The future is bleak. The noise is loud, and if you’re not careful, it becomes your worldview.

But here was a quiet counterpoint backed by hard numbers, not fear:

On at least one meaningful measure — the ability to feed a family for a holiday — life has gotten easier. Not harder.

I closed the email, opened a new document, and decided to write this blog. Not to make a political point. Not to argue economics. But because gratitude requires perspective — and perspective requires looking at data, not doom.

This is one of those places where the data tells a much brighter story than the headlines.

The Thanksgiving Basket: What Looks Like Price Inflation Isn’t the Real Story

Since 1986, the American Farm Bureau Federation has tracked the cost of a traditional Thanksgiving dinner for 10 people — turkey, potatoes, cranberries, rolls, stuffing, pie mix, vegetables, milk, and whipping cream.

In 1986, that basket cost $28.74. In 2025, it’s roughly $55.18.

On paper, that’s about a 92% increase. If you stop there, the lesson is simple: “Thanksgiving is getting more expensive.”

But that’s not how life actually works.

We buy things with money — but we pay for them with time.

Your real cost is the number of work hours required to earn the money for the meal.

Time Prices: The Humans-First Metric

In 1986, the average blue-collar worker earned $8.92/hour. That means they had to work 3.22 hours to afford Thanksgiving dinner for ten.

By 2025, the same worker earns $31.33/hour.

Now?

That same meal costs 1.76 hours of work.

A 45.3% decrease in time price — the lowest on record.

Put differently:

For the time a worker spent in 1986 to afford one dinner…a worker today can afford almost 1.83 dinners.

That’s 83% more food for the same slice of life.

And here’s another angle that almost no one talks about:

Today’s blue-collar worker enjoys Thanksgiving dinner for the “time cost” of 10.6 minutes of work.

In 1986, the same meal cost 19.3 minutes.

That’s progress.

It’s not loud. It’s not dramatic. It’s not in your social media feed. But it’s real.

Why This Matters — Especially for Health

You and I both know how easy it is to slip into scarcity thinking.

We hear about inflation, rising costs, uncertainty — and it activates the ancient part of the brain that scans for threat. But gratitude, rational optimism, and mental calm all come from zooming out. From seeing the full context, not the emotional snapshot.

This is what I tell clients constantly:

Look at trends, not moments. Look at habits, not slip-ups. Look at time, not just today.

A Thanksgiving meal requiring half as much labor as it did forty years ago might seem trivial, but it reflects something bigger:

• Wages have outpaced the price of one of America’s most iconic holiday meals.

• More people can afford to feed more people for fewer hours of their life.

• Progress is happening – quietly, but undeniably.
  

And I’m grateful for that.

Not blindly optimistic. Not ignoring the real challenges people face. Just honest about what has improved.

If you care about mental health, physical health, or peace of mind, noticing progress isn’t optional — it’s a skill. A skill tied to resilience, rationality, and even longevity.

Writing this blog is me practicing that skill. And maybe modeling it for you.

Final Thought

We live in a world where fear spreads faster than facts. So when I find a fact worth being grateful for — one rooted in real-world data rather than noise — I think it’s worth sharing.

A Thanksgiving dinner takes less of your life to earn today than it did in 1986.That matters.That’s something. And it’s okay to say: I’m grateful for progress.

Because perspective isn’t just comforting — it’s grounding.

And the more grounded we are, the better we take care of our health, our families, and ourselves.

Source: Gale Pooley, Human Progress Newsletter