The time spent on any item of the agenda will be in inverse proportion to the sum involved.

This line is commonly presented as part of Parkinson’s observations about how committees and bureaucracies allocate attention during meetings, especially when discussing budgets or decisions of varying financial impact.

Groups often spend disproportionate time debating small, low-stakes costs while giving relatively little scrutiny to large, high-stakes expenditures, because the smaller items feel easier for everyone to comment on.