“A fundamental and constant truth about human action is that man prefers his end to be achieved in the shortest possible time. The sooner any end is attained, the better. This is the universal fact of time preference. The less waiting time, the more preferable it is for him.”
“If the rate of interest paid were zero, complete capital consumption would ensue.” (p. 452)
Next:
- 13-5a The role of capital is to advance men in time toward their objective in producing consumers’ goods
- 13-6 Man reveals only a part of his value scale through actions
Related:
- 7-1d Create something simpler-faster-cheaper for things we’ve been doing for thousands of years
- 9-4b3e1 Concise explanations accelerate. It helps others understand you better and faster at all scales.
- 13-4d4 Value is subjective
- 13-5b1 Without the capitalists, the income earned by the owners of land and labor fluctuates with consumer demand and is received at a much later date
- But maybe in the olden days, there was no capital to be consumed—the explanatory power of time preference presumes the existence of capital (and technological capacity to act on it) in the first place:revisit
- 7-1d2a The relation between technology and the problem-situation (i.e., culture and mind) is reflexiverevisit
- 12-1e Nothing is necessary = Everything is contingent
- 13-2a The supply of capital goods enforces narrower limits than knowledge
- 13-5b2a0.1 Only demonstrated time-preference schedules can be compared—we can say “A has demonstrated higher time-preference than B” but we cannot say “A has higher time-preference than B”
- 13-5g Do not confuse the effect for the cause—to explain the causality at play, you must explain what must have happened at first and what would have happened in the absence of change
- 13-10a Time preference per se doesn’t explain anything