Our Death Spiral, and a Potential Way Out

Recently I’ve been studying basic economics. A once completely alien subject to me, is suddenly a bit more clear. Time preference, a term I’ve come across quite frequently, has given us a name to a hazy, but intuitive idea many of us have.

Definition of time preference:

The insight that people prefer 'present goods' (goods available for use at present) to 'future goods' (present expectations of goods becoming available at some date in the future)

One thing I find amazing is that time preference, and many other concepts in economics, can be used for philosophical thought.

Perhaps if we just dig a bit further down into any subject, we can find a goldmine of ideas which can be used for high-level thought?

A person with a high time preference is constantly seeking a quick means to an end, sometimes without any regard to what the means or end entail. In the modern world, particularly the western world where there is widespread prosperity, people with a high time preference aren’t necessarily in dire need of some quick cash to survive. The variation of high time preference which plagues us most greatly today is a high time preference brought on by addiction, not survival.

This addiction is constant in our lives, it is the addiction to ease. We have a high time preference for ease, we want it all now. It’s thrown us into a death spiral. Even those who are aware of this still allow this contagious addiction to slip through the cracks every once in a while. Consequentially, we are casting out any thought aimed toward creating a better future.

How can we turn this ship around?

The solution is simple on it’s face, though the implementation of it requires lots of time. We must adopt, and encourage the adoption of a low time preference, we must place an emphasis on the future. The beauty and ingenuity that the world has seen, has come from an understanding that the world can be made better if we defer our action towards gaining pleasure, and instead, work to build something which makes the confrontation with the future more desirable.

As young men we should seek to cast aside the countless pleasures at our fingertips: Video games, YouTube, porn, and TikTok. These things draw our precious energy and time away from us. Our energy should be directed toward building ourselves, brick-by-brick, into men who are prepared to confront any future there may be. At very least, it would benefit us, and those who come after us, to direct our actions toward becoming competent in a variety of subjects.

What if we lowered our time preference, aimed to shape ourselves into the man we wish to be, and worked at becoming that man every day. What could be accomplished within a single year?

As Epictetus said, “First say to yourself what you would be; and then do what you have to do.”

To the parents, grandparents, and other potential examples/mentors for young men, your focus on the idea of having a low time preference can aid you in guiding the young men around you to act thoughtfully and act with intention.

Here’s the link to the economics book I’ve been reading. It’s been wonderful for me: Principles of Economics