The Balance of Security and Chance

Perhaps the answer is positive, if we concede that the

task of the life insurance business-not merely its duty,
Time - - The
but a necessary condition of its continued survival-is
not simply to sell individual life insurance policies, but
to help to clecide tlie balance of security and chance at by \Vilbert E. Moore
diflcrent phases of peoples lives, and thus at different
phases over time in the life of the entire n ation.
For fertility determines wvliat security burden a family
assumes in becoming responsible for the care of children,
who may not in the Iarger scheme of things yield a profit
for that family unit. And, at the other end of the family
cycle, it determines liow many grown children there will
be to care for their aging parents, i.c., what the unit cost
IN tlie world of common-sense experience, the only
close rival of money as a pervasive and awkward
scarcity is time.
will be of assuring their security.
Although time and treasure are somewhat inter-
Indeed, unraveling the obscurities of deciding to have
changeable, in that either is a potential instrument for
a child may, more than any other single datum, help us
increasing the other, the aphoristic equation, Time is
to understand the deeper motives of buying insurance,
Money is not uniformly sound. In contemporary Ameri-
in itself a symbol of loyalty to the younger generation.
can society (and indeed in other prosperous and plural-
Similarly, to understand the complexities of class mo-
istic societies), time may have small or negative value
bility, achievement, and family pattern is to grasp tlie
precisely for the very rich, who need not work, and for
balance of risk and security at the family and individual
the very poor, who cannot work because they are un-
level that matches (or may be disharmonious with) the
employable or in any event unemployed. Though time is
mix of risk and security in the larger economic system.
scarce for most people in a relative sense, and, given
Any large industry must be concerned in part with these
mans mortality, for all people in an absolute sense, any
problems, for its fate parallels that of the nation, which
individual may, at times, experience plethora or surfeit.
is partially determined by such balances.
Time has intrigued philosophers at least since persons
More centrally, the life insurance buiiness itself rests
of a speculative disposition left any records, and con-
on a peculiar balance between the individual familys
ceptions of time are distinctly variable from one culture
desire for risk and security. A lineage or clan system of
to another. Yet the temporal ordering of social behavior
kinship does not need life insurance; nor would a Cli-
has received only sporadic or intermittent attention by
nese commune if it worked according to plan. It is pre-
the sciences dealing with man. hhns numbers and their
cisely because the extension of kin is relatively small in
distribution in space have produced recognized fields
the industrial society, and therefore any loss of any
of scientific specialization: demography and human ecol-
family member is a greater catastrophe than in a largcr
ogy. Incidentally, specialists in these fields have consid-
kin system-i.e., it is a high risk system-that insurance
ered time as a condition or as a variable to a far greater
is necessary. In a maximum risk system where specu-
degree than have other behavioral scientists. The focus
latively each person would stand alone, such as tlie Pla-
on time as a central feature of order and sequdnce, how-
tonic Republic, where the leaders would not even know
ever, is so minimally developed. that no one has even
their own children and thus would not make provision
invented a name for a science of the temporal dimensions
for them, insuraqce would not be attractive, eitlier.
of social life. (The term chronology has been pre-
That is, the existence of the life insurance business empted for the ordering and dating of past events, and
itself depends in part on a balance in the emphasis wvith- thus excludes tlie rhythms and cycles, speed and direc-
in family and society on change and constancy, mobility tion, tlie strains in time allocations, tlie strategies of
and stability, risk and security. The flow of shaping planning that mark the phenomena of time in human
forces from the larger society, through the family pat- experience.) Our theme, in any event, is man and time,
tern to the individual, and thus reciprocally to shape the and inventing some designation like antliropochronol-
next phase of the larger society, can be understood. En- ogy seems scarcely necessary, and indeed more than
tering tlie inquiry at the level of the family unit yields slightly pretentious. Our task is to attend to the signifi-
a good look at both higlier and lower levels. The ob- cance of temporal scarcity and to tlie significance of
scurities are many and complex, but unraveling them temporal sequence in the ordering of mans behavior.
will help us better to comprehend both the present and
the immediate future. Excerpts from r? forthcoming xork, Mcm, Time, and Society, on
the gcncral problem of the temporal ordcring of social Iifc to be pub-
Iislicd in 1963 by John WiIcy and Sons, Inc.

sa THE AMERICAN BEHAVIORAL SClEhTTlST

Ultimate Scarcity
.%L

Time is taken to be a climeiisioii of social life ttihicli has

beeit largely neglected by social scie~itists.A tiirnibcr of
siiggcstions arc made as to possible research approaches
arid a roirgh typology of temporal strategies is set forth.
The rchtioiiship of time to death is discirssed. Dr. Moore
is Professor of Sociology a t Princeton Uiiiuersity.

Temporal Allocations scarcity. Accumulation and storage are, in the strict

Time as a behavioral dimension lias received remarka-
bly little attention in empirical research, particularly
that relating to groups and other social systems. This
relative neglect probably stems in large measure from
tlie predominant preoccupation of scholars with various
functional and equilibrium models. This supposition
is supported by the circumstance that we h o w more
about temporal allocation than we do about the se-
quence or rate of social actions. Concern for the re1ations
bctmeen work and leisure and for varying participation
ratcs (but these measure prevalence rather than speed)
lias prompted a growing and increasingly valuable body
of data on time-budgets of activities: Yet we know little
beyond our everyday experience about the ordering of
activities in time. TVhat, exactly, are tlie 5ge-status pat-
terns in occupational careers? What are the planning
horizons of families or corporations, and liow are these
plans modified in course? Are there significant differences
in the pace of activity in various contexts of action, lead-
ing to distinctive temporal profiles? (For esample, how
accurate is tlie cynical observation that life for tlie mili-
tary man, but also for the civilian air traveler, is marked
by tlie need to hurry up and wait?)
Time is scarce for the social observer, too, and long-
term trends depend for their detection on the transmis-
sion of knowledge from one generation to another. Yet
perhaps the time is ripe-the Spanish lu cs hora! ex-
presses tlie right sense of urgency-to examine times
1)oundaries and flonrs as they impinge on human affairs.
Though tlie concept of time is essentially nleaningless
unless it denotes recurrence and scquence, a flow of
distinguishable events, for many aspects of human ex-
perience and for many purposes of analysis, time may be
regarded as fixed, a static condition or parameter of
Ixhavior. The diurnal cycle is limited, wliatevcr the
division into inter\&. The same is true of tlie \veek ( a n
arl>itrary tcnip3ral unit like the hour or minute), the
month, tlie year. Intcnsc activity may conserve time, but
only within stringent limits. And, over a longer period,
it is mans mortality that makes of time tlie ultimate
sense, impossible, although certain kinds of time-claims
may be credited, as when an employee is permitted to
accumulate sick leave or paid vacations. Time lost is
never truly regained, although the effects of loss may be
compensated by greater intensity of use.
The Temporal Order
Particularly in tlie largest and most complex social
groups invented by man, tlie bureaucracy or administra-
tive organization, temporal order is of tlie essence.
Present actions must be taken in order to assure the out-
come of friture events, often over a considerable period.
If individuals may, in small ways, extend their temporal
influence beyond their own lives, tlie bureaucracy may in
some of its plans act as though the awkward fact of
human mortality did not exist. Just as tlie leaders of na-
tions commonly attempt to assure a benign or a t least
tolerable future for generations yet unborn, the execu-
tives of private business corporations may commit cur-
rent resources to investments that cannot realize a return
during tlie lifetime of any current employee.
The quest for a worldly immortality by individuals or
corporations or nations may add modestly to the finite
supply of time, but avoids neither its nltimate scarcity
nor the complex and hazardous problems of maintaining
a temporal order. Commuters still miss trains, execu-
tives still make untimely decisions, and nations still fall
behind in international races for weapons or influence.
A sense of current urgency, probably more acute and
affecting more people than ever before in mans history,
prompts a new regard for clocks, both real and figura-
tive. For the measurement of time is a t once a symbol
of mans attempt to order and control time and a symbol
of times fateful final mastery over tlie human enterprise.
From birth to deatli the human individual never quite
escapes from the limits of time and its fleeting quality.
Time scarcity in some absolute sense may be greatest
n h r e mans relations with his environment are extremely
insecure as the ordinary state of affairs. Thus many non-
literate or primitive groups have relatively poorly de-
veloped techniques for assuring sustenance and for tlie

.5 9
preservation of individual lives. Yet the uncertainty of
life generally does not produce a careful fractionation of
temporal units, a tidy husbanding of the manifestly
short and precarious supply. Indeed, the complaint is
often voiced by the Western observer-more often some-
one with interests in securing indigenous employees than
the anthropological scholar attempting to analyze an
alien culture-that primitive populations have no con-
ception of (or perhaps, rather, regard for) time.
The paradox becomes complete by contrast with the
clock-ridden member of a modern industrial society.
An inhabitant of one of the worlds prosperous countries
lias an average life e-xpectancyat birth of about 70 years,
and adults, having survived hazards of childliood can
expect to live to a somewhat more advanced age.
Though the chances of premature death by disease or
accident are by no means eliminated, the occurrences of
such misfortunes are sufficiently rare to give virtually
every person a reasonable expectation of a normal
life span.
Life Management
Because the life span is the longest period to which
mortal man may adapt in behavioral terms, its restraints
for many are less significant than its latitude in tem-
poral ordering. Of course the perccption and significance
of ultimate mortality is likely to increase with advancing
age, with the prospective time remaining becoming in-
creasingly precious. Bereavement also calls at least tem-
porary attention to the reality of death, pnrticularly if
the deceased died prematurely. It is reasonable to sup-
pose, although there is little direct evidence on this
point, that the constraining importance of death for, say,
the young adult lias an approximate correlation with
mortality risks. That is to say, if killing diseases and fre-
quent disasters are normal, or if deaths in battle are
numerous in military operations, those remaining alive
may operate with rather short temporal liorizons. In
modern societies with very low mortality rates, particu-
larly for the young and mature adults, those adults are
likely to figures largely in the many for whom long-
term temporal ordering is tlie prcdominant orientation
to tlie life span. It is in those societies also that infancy
is prolonged in the sense of protracted formal educa-
tional preparation for future adult roles, and that inter-
generational social .mt&ility and some latitude in occu-
pational choice provide precisely the options and un-
certainties that permit and indeed almost require a kind
of latitude in temporal ordering and potential strategies
in sequence and timing.
There are of course relatively short-term strategies in
the management of ones life. Awareness of increasing
age may spur individuals to attempt to alter tlie pace of
60
events, or at least of personal acllicvemcnts. Comparisons
with age peers are common, with depressing or edlilirat-
ing results, for in a competitive system age synchroniza-
tion is not an automatic virtue. Simply to be on the
pace is only to comply with an average, which is nor-
mal but not outstanding. The imminence of retirement
(with the usually unspoken aftermath of imminent death)
may prompt some peopIe to exceptional efforts in order
to get a better match between expectations and achiev-
ments.
Rational strategies of life-cycle management include
thc maintenance of physical vigor and the prolongation
of life by preventive and therapeutic medicine. Parents
may plan the number and spacing of children in terms
of some calculus of future financial costs, and plan tlieir
current savings to meet those costs, since future hoped-
for income increases are likely at best to be somewhat
off phase for future family needs.
Rational economic management involves attempts to
cushion against short-term income losses by savings or
disability insurance, to compensate for income reduction
or loss in retirement by prior purchase of annuities, and
to provide financial support for dependents by life insur-
ance on the breadwinner. Life insurance protection can
be provided by a wide variety of policy forms ranging
from basic term or temporary protection to policies
\vhich combine a substantial element of savings with the
protection. Examples of the latter are endowment and
retirement income policies. The typical and popular form
of permanent whole life insurance uses a premium based
upon the mortality experience of large populations. Ob-
viously at the older ages of issue the typical premium
is higher because the mortality rate is greater-or, if you
will, tlie period of life expectancy is shorter. Obviously,
the family of the insured who dies early in the duration
of his policy receives proceeds much in excess of the
premiums paid--\vliile the insured who lives well be-
yond liis expectancy may in fact p y premiums in excess
of the face amount of his policy. Since permanent forms
of life insurance include cash and paid-up values, 1 1 0 ~ ~ -
ever, there is considerable flexibility available to the in-
sured as llis needs for family protection dccrcase and as
lie himself plans for retirement and the period of reduc-
tion or cessation of his personal earnings.
The very possibility of temporal strategies involving
life and deatli symbolize a degrce of mastery over fate,
but that mastery is still only partial, since death is in-
evitable. Indeed, rational action is of distinct but limited
utility, for the planning of times uses, the calculus of
future costs and benefits, provides no answer to the
ultimate meaning of life and death. For tlie rational and
civilized man shares the same inexorable destiny with
tlic improvident wastrel or tlie untutored tribesman.
THE AAlERlCAAl BEHAVIORAL SClEA7TIST