In the
midst of the epic dysfunction known as the 16-day government shutdown,
we lost sight of the fundamental issue whose inescapable logic cuts
across politics and party lines: We are feeding the gluttonous appetites
of our current at the dire and escalating cost to our future selves. If
that sounds unworkable and unsustainable, it is.
If
government spending continues at this pace, feeding the monster known as the
national debt will swallow the resources of our future selves, whether
we personify that concept as ourselves at retirement or our children who
will inherit an astronomical bill for our rash, compulsive and unnecessary spending.
We
cannot expect Washington to solve these problems, because politicians
are, by definition, creatures of the moment who want to please their
current constituents who will re-elect them, rather than worrying about
future constituents who cannot vote. It’s up to us to advocate for our
future selves.
As
simple and logical as this might sound, it is near impossible to
do. We simply can’t help ourselves, because of our human nature and a
behavioral concept, applicable to most everything in life, called time
inconsistency, or hyperbolic discounting. Simply stated, we discount the
present now more than we expect to later. That is, we act one way now,
impatient, demanding our appetites be met at all costs, while deluding
ourselves that, in the future, we’ll somehow be patient and better able
to act rationally and take care of problems. But when later becomes now,
we are just as impatient. The easiest and most universal example is
dieting. We indulge our appetites now, telling ourselves we’ll diet tomorrow. The
parallels to our bloated spending and ballooning debt are too obvious to
mention.
Our
only hope to stop the battle between present and future selves is to
adopt a more roundabout perspective, seeing time differently in an
intertemporal dimension. When we are no longer hyper-focused on the
moment, we can pursue proximal aims that look across slices of time. We
avoid eating, drinking, acting, and spending as if there is no tomorrow,
so that we can, indeed, have better, healthier, and more prosperous
tomorrow.
Admittedly,
grasping these concepts about our human nature and our perplexing time
inconsistency requires a mental leap. By becoming more aware, though, we
give ourselves a roadmap with which to navigate the minefields of our
own human nature. With an intertemporal perspective we can avoid the mad
scramble for 11th hour solutions, which in politics always equals
crisis.
Since
we cannot expect Washington and its stable of political animals to do
the work, we must press for it ourselves, by sending the message to
Capitol Hill: Taking on ever bigger amounts of debt is mathematically
unsustainable. Using the Federal Reserve and its zero-interest-rate
policy to kick the proverbial can down the road only postpones the pain,
which intensifies with the passage of time. The reckoning will be
excruciating.
When
another shutdown looms in the months ahead, we have to keep in mind who
the battle is really between: our present selves versus our future
selves. We who can think, act, and vote now, must advocate for the
currently disenfranchised who will pay the bill.
