Covid-19 has shown us that the present—the today—can be, at times, overwhelming in its salience, and there is little that we can do, or indeed should do, that does not focus on the needs of the moment. At the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, in the first terrifying few months of a disease that we did not understand, it was appropriate that we invest every bit of our effort in mitigating the immediate threat we faced. But at what point does tomorrow matter more than today?
There are multiple ways in which one can approach this question. Economists approach it through time discounting, the study of how the value of rewards is shaped by their temporal proximity. Benefits that accrue in the present tend to matter more than those that may accrue in the future, losing value the more distant they become from the present moment, simply because, all things being equal, we put more value on the bird in the hand. There are, of course, alternative perspectives. If we prioritize the needs of future generations-- any parent who invests their money into college funds for their children rather than buying a new car does this—we are valuing the future more than the present.
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