To me, the most glaring example of this is the massive expansion in debt across the entire world in the last few decades.
On a political level, debt allows politicians to buy off their constituents without having to make hard choices related to the budget.
On a personal level, debt allows us to buy that house, car, boat, etc. that we've had our eye on without putting in the work and saving that should be necessary.
In both cases, the debt eventually catches up with us and we end up spending the vast majority of what we have on interest instead of things that you want in the future.
I think the same principle applies in life: if you sacrifice future gain for present stimulation, you'll end up paying for it in the future.
Yep, nailed it, our government is really just a reflection of how most of us operate. Most, not all!
Superb point! Debt is the perfect example of this philosophy at work. Instant gratification in exchange for future work.
On average in the USA, a worker (me, you?) will have about $2 million pass through their (our) hands in a lifetime. It seems to me that we're in some trouble, because in order to enjoy a decent retirement, one needs to have approximately $2.5 million saved in a retirement account when we retire. I don't care what the financial experts say, unless one invests ones money just right, it's not even a possibility.
Many of my coworkers don't have a penny to their name and they are in their mid 40s!!
Now I do what I can to scrimp and save....but you're right....living for the now vs. living for the future is an epidemic. I'm in my mid 30s and my grandparents worked as hard as they could and they barely had a decent retirement to fall back on, and they DIDN'T have all this debt that we are saddled with today.
We get conflicting messages from financial institutions regarding saving for retirement. The financial industry wants people plowing as much money as possible into their retirement products, while central banks artificially suppress interest rates (which affect the value of every other asset) to encourage spending now instead of saving. The level of risk in any investment (including putting money in a savings account) has skyrocketed, and the vast majority of society doesn't know how to deal with this.
With 25% of Millenials living with their parents and not working or studying, we're already beginning to see a shift back to family living models that we thought we'd left in the past. I think you'll see more and more elderly care taken on by adult children to save on nursing home costs.
For me, the science is convincing that "retirement" is bad for your health and that continuing with some kind of work until you physically can't anymore is the best way to live.
$2.5 million?!?! maybe so, if you stay in the "First World"! I didn't, and so far have been able to stretch a half million far enough to own a big house, drive a nice but old Honda and raise a family. Had to learn another language to be able to do it, though...
Costa Rica? :)