When we borrow today for our wants today and expect to pay tomorrow we are asking Uncle Tomorrow to pay for us today.
Mark coined an interesting term which I think I should share with you. We were discussing how, as younger people, we spent money on things we really didn't need using borrowed money - expecting the person of tomorrow to pay for the things we wanted today. The problem is, of course, that the person of tomorrow has their own wants and needs, and doesn't want to have to pay for the wants of the person of yesterday.
Of course, that person of tomorrow - let's call him Uncle Tomorrow - doesn't have a choice in the matter. If the person of yesterday decided to borrow money to buy a jet ski, then Uncle Tomorrow has to pay for it, whether he wants to or not. If the person of today decides to borrow $100,000 for a sociology degree, then Uncle Tomorrow has to pay for it - whether he wants to or not.
Is it it is easy to see, in retrospect, how this works, particularly when you become Uncle Tomorrow and are saddled with the debts of Mr. Yesterday. You start to realize that Mr. Yesterday was an idiot and bought lots of stupid things that he really didn't need, but rather wanted and expected Uncle Tomorrow to pay the bill. As you might imagine Uncle Tomorrow is rather pissed.
I mentioned this before in my blog. Particularly, how we tend to disassociate ourselves from the person of yesterday and the person of tomorrow. We tend to see ourselves as discreet entities in time and maybe there is some sort of metaphysical basis for this. Maybe we only exist in discrete moments and not as a continuum.
All I can say is, as an Uncle Tomorrow, I am glad that the person of yesterday put aside a little money for me when he did. Because although he squandered a shitload of cash on stupid idiotic things, he did manage to put some money into investments, thinking of his good old Uncle Tomorrow.
