Writes Darren McPhilimy:

It is natural for high time preference Keynesians who refuse to save and invest for the future to see any and all needs which arise naturally in the progress of life as being unexpected and unfair. A Keynesian grasshopper who has spent the summer eating and playing rather than working and saving sees his own wintertime hunger as an unfortunate and unforeseeable condition. By the time the grasshopper realizes that he is in need, his hunger has become a pre-existing condition. The grasshopper will inevitably show up on the doorstep of the industrious ant and make demands for sustenance based on the moral argument that he is a  victim of circumstance worthy of rescue in the name of charity.Low time preference Austrians do save in order to meet future needs and so those needs remain, for the most part, manageable. Like the prudent ant, the Austrian eats today from his established hoard and sees the need to eat next winter as a pre-existing condition, which must be dealt with by working and saving today while the sun shines. Unfortunately for the grasshopper, the ant also knows that if he is forced to support the grasshopper as well as the members of his own anthill, all will starve. The ant’s refusal to help the grasshopper in deference to self survival is just one more pre-existing condition with which the grasshopper can only fail to contend.

Is it any wonder that those who see no value in preparing for the future find themselves stupefied and unprepared when the future arrives?

PS: Also see this.

The Best of Llewellyn H. Rockwell, Jr.