[heretoo]

Are you saying that short term thinking has no utility? I am willing to bet that there are a multitude of circumstances in most peoples lives that require short term thinking, or their lively hood or lives will be destroyed.

In a threatening situation, you solve the short term problem in order to have an opportunity to think long term, which will help to prevent these problems subsequently.

If we were talking chess, you wouldn't ignore the immediate moves of your opponent, because their idea of how the game should be played doesn't fit with your long term desire of how you want the game to turn out.

[waynecochran]

Perhaps I am a little too glib. You are correct, often without the short term there is no long term -- especially for small businesses. But as a whole, if institutions pay ransom then there is an incentive for folks to carry out this kind of extortion.