Every Year's Resolution

A great article from Gary North at LewRockwell.com about life stages and meaningful work.

"So, I am looking to generate income that will hedge against the FED and also against a political revolt by taxpaying workers who finally figure out that the political system is stacked against them."

"Ben Franklin, in Poor Richard’s Almanack, put it this way: "A child thinks that twenty dollars or twenty years can never be spent." Actually, he said twenty pounds, which was a lot more money in 1755. But you get the idea. Money gets spent, and so does time.

It is the relentless ticking of the clock that should focus our attention. Franklin’s contemporary, Samuel Johnson, quipped that there is nothing like a sentence to be hanged in two weeks to focus a man’s attention. But the end is just as real in 40 years as two weeks.

The more future-oriented you are, the more attention you will pay to the ticking clock. Ludwig von Mises called this time-preference. Future-oriented people have low time preference. They discount the future at a lower rate of interest. This applies to future benefits, but it also applies to future costs.

The present-oriented person is like the grasshopper in the story of the grasshopper and the ants. He fiddles all summer and starves in winter. In the Disney cartoon, he sings, "The world owes me a living." It doesn’t."