TIME PREFERENCE (IMPATIENCE)

the distribution of wealth, and also to lower the rate ofinterest.

§10. The Personal Factor Summarized

Impatience for income, therefore, depends for eachindividual on his income, on its size, time shape, andprobability; but the particular form of this dependencediffers according to the various characteristics of the in-dividual. The characteristics which will tend to make hisimpatience great are: (1) short-sightedness, (2) a weakwill, (3) the habit of spending freely, (4) emphasis uponthe shortness and uncertainty of his life, (5) selfishness,or the absence of any desire to provide for his survivors,(6) slavish following of the whims of fashion. The re-verse conditions will tend to lessen his impatience;namely, (1) a high degree of foresight, which enableshim to give to the future such attention as it deserves;(2) a high degree of self-control, which enables him toabstain from present real income in order to increasefuture real income; (3) the habit of thrift; (4) empha-sis upon the expectation of a long life; (5) the possessionof a family and a high regard for their welfare after hisdeath; (6) the independence to maintain a proper bal-ance between outgo and income, regardless of Mrs.Grundy and the high-powered salesmen of devices thatare useless or harmful, or which commit the purchaserbeyond his income prospects.

The resultant of these various tendencies in any oneindividual will determine the degree of his impatience ata given time, under given conditions with a particularincome stream. The result will differ as between individ-uals, and at different times for the same individual.

The same individual in the course of his life may

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