In the lab, as in life, the alcoholics and addicts and smokers are exemplars of the hazards of short-term goals. Ignoring the long term is hazardous to your health, both physically and fiscally. In another experiment with those stories about Joe and Bill, researchers found that people with high incomes tended to look further into the future than people with low incomes. That difference is partly due to necessity: If you’re scrambling to pay the rent, you don’t have the luxury of comparing 401(k) retirement plans. Yet being unable to pay the rent can also be a consequence of short-term
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