I do tend to think that things that have incredibly long time horizons often do involve market failures.
I've noticed a terrible thing, which is I will agree to anything if it's far enough in the future.
Let's face it: the present self is present. It's in control. It's in power right now. It has these strong, heroic arms that can lift doughnuts into your mouth. And the future self is not even around. It's off in the future. It's weak. It doesn't even have a lawyer present.
Humans have a tendency towards short-term thinking.
We are prone to seek immediate pleasure or good, however small, rather than remote pleasure or good, however vast.
A related aspect of intelligent consciousness is delay of gratification: the wisdom to accurately predict whether delay rather than acting on impulse will yield greater benefit.
When we can see an immediate payoff, we are more likely to change our behavior in the moment. This aligns our daily actions with our long-term interests.
It is clear that men accept an immediate pain rather than an immediate pleasure, but only because they expect a greater pleasure in the future. Often the pleasure is illusory, but their error in calculation is no refutation of the rule.
