Oddbean new post about | logout
 Another way to look at it. To take the Bitcoin standard example. The person that invests time (read money) in making a fishing rod instead of just fishing by hand is delaying getting fish now to get more fish later on. (low time preference) Investing money (read time) in a company for more productivity in the future, is low time preference. When you save, you are engaged in high time preference. It's the better move currently as the future is so distorted, it's hard to know what a good investment is actually, but that comes with less productivity. This is why debt CAN be good. Debt is just leveraged investment. Most investments right now are bad, so most debt right now is bad. A time investment in making a fishing rod and a money investment in a productive asset are no different. Time is money is labor is energy. This is why you should be spending Bitcoin anywhere that accepts it. Spend and replace until the new monetary standard arrives to the masses.  
 This is all true, but realize that you are using an example without money in the equation. When you add money then the act of saving allows investment for others to be available in the first place. And it doesn’t require a loan, this is what producing extra resources and thus lowering their price will naturally do. 

- If Bob doesn’t know what to invest in, he can produce and save money, and this gives the societal surplus of the same amount for Tim to make his fishing net. the same thing happens with the capital, him loaning it is merely for him to think he know exactly *what* to invest in.