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Traditionally, participation in the local community has been considered a crucial component of community living for people with learning disabilities. Highlighted in Valuing People (DH, 2001) and in Valuing People Now (DH, 2007), this concept ‐ now appearing as ‘inclusion’ ‐ has retained its prominence, and is an important area for service development and monitoring. Monitoring of community activities was undertaken pre‐ and post‐closure of two small day service facilities. The findings indicate that for this group of people (generally older with higher support needs) the closure of the day service facilities did not, overall, result in a significant increase in community activities. The availability of the time that the person had previously spent in specialist day services was not, by and large, used to develop social inclusion. Even though, for some individuals, some gains were recorded, overall these gains were considered a poor return for the hours released from the closure of the day service facilities.

Max Weber called the maxim “Time is Money” the surest, simplest expression of the spirit of capitalism. Coined in 1748 by Benjamin Franklin, this modern proverb now has a life of its own. In this paper, I examine the worldwide diffusion and sociocultural history of this paradigmatic expression. The intent is to explore the ways in which ideas of time and money appear in sedimented form in popular sayings.

My approach is sociological in orientation and multidisciplinary in method. Drawing upon the works of Max Weber, Antonio Gramsci, Wolfgang Mieder, and Dean Wolfe Manders, I explore the global spread of Ben Franklin’s famed adage in three ways: (1) via evidence from the field of “paremiology” – that is, the study of proverbs; (2) via online searches for the phrase “Time is Money” in 30-plus languages; and (3) via evidence from sociological and historical research.

The conviction that “Time is Money” has won global assent on an ever-expanding basis for more than 250 years now. In recent years, this phrase has reverberated to the far corners of the world in literally dozens of languages – above all, in the languages of Eastern Europe and East Asia.

Methodologically, this study unites several different ways of exploring the globalization of the capitalist spirit. The main substantive implication is that, as capitalism goes global, so too does the capitalist spirit. Evidence from popular sayings gives us a new foothold for insight into questions of this kind.