Dear Friends,
It seems to me, there is a pernicious and diabolical attack on delayed gratification today, and we are just starting to see the negative consequences of it. Mature people understand the advantages of delayed gratification. The old fable about the ant and the grasshopper shows how deeply ingrained the idea is in our psyche. The story tells the tale of an ant that lays up food for the winter and a grasshopper who lives the life of Riley. When winter comes the grasshopper dies and the ant lives. The moral is to delay gratification else you will be subject to the whims of fortune. Perhaps even losing your life in the process. Yet there is an attack on delayed gratification today. To what end would a faction want people to be dependent and subject to disaster? One intent on autocracy…
Whenever a person on a pension is denigrated as getting money for free, that is an underhanded attack on delayed gratification. It denies the validity of putting money aside for later. This is because, to get a pension, a person foregoes immediate money for his or her labor, for the promise of a pension later, in other words, delaying gratification. The same goes for attacking people using company provided medical insurance. Those who have medical insurance have exchanged a larger paycheck for that insurance, and if they are denied that insurance, or begrudged it, the company is being let off it’s moral duty and contractual obligation. These skillful tactics to undermine the justice of delaying gratification, can only lead to people who live for the moment, and as a result are unable to meet inevitable upsets.
Whenever an IRA or savings is taxed, that is a pernicious incentive against delaying gratification. The wealthy have teams of experts, to make sure they don’t pay taxes on their investments, so the small investor ends up paying the lion’s share. Which of course has the added benefit of holding the little guy down. Nevertheless, the reality is, when the return of an investment is negative, or requires so much footwork it is no longer an asset but a liability, self interested people will no longer invest. Retirement accounts will not be established or funded, pensions will no longer be a factor in the markets and everyone will become a ward of the State… the moment we are unable to earn a living. Once that happens the roof will be forced to support the foundation.
Whenever capital gains or interest is attacked as being usury, exploitation or unconscionable, that is really a backhand at delayed gratification. It is society, (or rather the cultural elite) inculcating to young people that saving for the future is bad, stupid, selfish and ignorant. How do you suppose this message has played out with Millenials? Statistics show they have received the message loud and clear. Millenials don’t have IRA’s, they don’t save period, they don’t buy houses, they don’t establish families, they don’t even drive cars!!!!! So it would appear that attacking delayed gratification has changed the mindset of our youth, (the most susceptible to such manipulations), away from the habit. Which bodes ill for their long term economic well being, resilience and maturity.
We see that in every case there is a certain faction that attacks delayed gratification. Since it is the platform of a faction, we must ask, why are they attacking delayed gratification? Since delayed gratification creates an economic buffer, that faction must not want an economic buffer, it makes people more mature, so that faction must not want people more mature, it makes people independent, so that faction must not want people independent, it allows for the utilization of money at opportune times, so that faction must not want that either. What do they want then? It must be that they want a dependent, weak, childish people, easy to manipulate and control. Seems like only a psychopath, intent on autocratic rule, would want such a thing…
Sincerely,
John Pepin
