Reply To: Debt

#18101
jmherbener
Participant

No, a person with high time preference will not live as well as a person with low time preference. But you were asking about the performance of the economy not about a person’s life. The economy’s performance is judged by how well we satisfy our preference in arranging a division of labor in production. Whether we have high time preferences or low time preferences, the market’s performance is judged by how well the market satisfies those preferences. Faster growth rates of GDP do not indicate a better performing economy than slower growth rates of GDP. If people have high time preferences, then slower growth rates of GDP indicate a well performing economy and if people have low time preferences, then faster growth rates of GDP indicate a well performing economy. But if people have high time preference, a faster growth rate of GDP does not indicate a better performing economy. It more than likely indicates that the Fed has generate a boom.