[daeken]

That's a great quote, but this all really just boils down to short- versus long-term thinking. When you're poor, your long-term thinking goes out the window in exchange for making it to next week. Getting out of that is hard -- harder than you can imagine until you're in it -- because it's like your long-term thought center just atrophies in survival mode.

[HCIdivision17]

Poor people aren't ignorant of the long-term. Note that Vimes himself is poor (he never really becomes a noble, at least); his point is you need boots now, and can't wait a year to save up for a good pair - the boots you get today leave you without enough to ever buy nice boots. Most depressingly, many don't see how they can save at all, making just slightly less than what's needed to make it to next week.

I suppose part of the trick is to realize you're living less than a zero sum life, and then grinding even worse off for a long while to save enough up for a pair of boots that will then save you enough to lift your life up by the bootstraps.

[nijk]

There are a few options when your life is negative sum:

Take on debt to amortize against future positive sums.

End yourself.

Change the weights in your utility formula.

[e12e]

You forgot: organize a revolution.

[rbehrends]

It's not a question of long-term vs. short-term thinking.

It's a question of cash flow.

It's a vicious cycle, too; the lower your cash flow is, the less you can exploit economies of scale, and the less you can save, keeping your cash flow limited. Catastrophic events (such as an unexpected illness) are more likely to create debt, and debt service (interest and repayment of principal) reduces your cash flow further.

While wealth, at some point, becomes self-sustaining.

[gnok]

I beg to differ. For a lot of people, it isn't about the "thinking". Its the reality of their wallets.

[daeken]

Perhaps "planning" is a term closer to what I'm attempting to convey. The reality is that even if you think long-term, it requires money to execute those plans.

[stdbrouw]

But how much long-term thinking can you really do when you have no money?

[daeken]

Very little -- that's the point. When you're in a position like this, you're not thinking long-term because 1) the short-term requires your immediate attention, and 2) even if you come up with long-term plans, it's going to be very difficult to execute them without money.

This is by no means a value judgement -- been there, done that -- and more just a reality of the situation.

[ownagefool]

Actually you can do all the long term thinking you like, you'll just be unlikely to be able to implement any of it since you won't have the money.