Free Exchange: A brief history of time
…Of course, most people would like to reach an ideal state where they can enjoy past moderation in tandem with present indulgence: being thin and rich while simultaneously eating, drinking and spending one's head off. It is with just such a picture . . . dressed to the nines with champagne and beef wellington in hand . . . that many of us rein in our more extravagent desires.
But while it is possible to reach such a state, it is not possible (barring freaks of inheritence and metabolism) to stay there. And excessive future orientation runs a real risk that one's life will be "jam yesterday, and jam tomorrow, but never jam today . . . "* The man who reaches old age with no savings and emphysema is a tragedy . . . but equally so is the 31 year old who dies with an overstuffed bank account and a long history of foregone opportunities for hedonistic pleasure.
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