Page:The Economic Journal Volume 1.djvu/702

 680 THE ECONOMIC JOURNA?, ourselves and our families, and thus the inclusion of future well- being in that conception of well-being which is the source of economic action, justifies this. But, practically, the future does not get its due. Goods that :.will only come into our possession in the future are universally measured by a different yard-stick, as it were, from present goods. This under-valuation seems to result from the co-operation of at least three great causes, one economic, another psychological, a third technical. 1. First is the difference in the circtunstances of want and provision for want in present and future respectively. In any circumstances if want is pressing and supply is scarce, value is high. But the want of the present is always more with us than the want of the future, and thus is always more pressing than the precisely similar future want. On the other hand, few men look forward to the future as likely to be worse provided for than the present, and, to that extent, most men expect that the future will be, not as this day, but much more abundant. This has a rational basis in the well-known progression of the world's wealth. Thus most people are willing to pledge their future expectations for a disproportionate present sum. It is very noticeable in all men beginning labour or business, but it is perhaps as noticeable in those entering professions. Two exceptions, indeed, will naturally suggest themselves. To a certain extent professional men whose income will come to an end with their years of work, and labourers who have reached the probable limit of their wage earning, will be inclined to attach more value to the certainty of a future sum than to the present possession of a similar sum. Even here, however, there is a balance in' favour of the present; for if a man has 100 in pre- sent money he can either employ it in the present, or retain it for the future, while the 100 coming to him in the future he can only use for that future. The existence of annuities confirms this point. The second exception is in the case of perishable goods, but, in modern times with their possibilities of immediate exchange, this can scarcely be considered a serious argument. 2. Second is the general under-estimate of the future. Men under-value future wants, and future goods with them, just because they are future. This is peculiarly the ca. so with children and savages, whose carelessness about provision is proverbial; but every one of us knows sometimes by sad experience--that pre- sent or pains stand very much higher in our estimate than future pleasures or pains, although we may have every reason to expect that the latter when they come will be much greater.