In David Foster Wallace's Infinite Jest, subsidized time is a government program to make money by selling time.
The government, can't of course, sell time itself, but it can sell the names of the years. So, in other words, instead of having the name of the year be "2001" it could be, for example The Year of the Depends Disposable Adult Undergarment.
The idea first occured to President Johny Gentle while watching a collge Bowl Game with a long, cumbersome name that reflected about 5 or 6 corporate sponsors. It was there that he thought up the idea of selling the years in the United States (and the other members of ONAN) to the highest bidder.
Once the name of the year is chosen, the Statue of Liberty is decorated with an appropriate advertisement for that years product. In the year of the Depends Disposable Adult Undergarment, for example, a large diaper was put on the Statue.