Attack Surface

by Cory Doctorow

Hyperbolic discounting’ is when you discount something too much, just because it’s some time in the future. White, happy San Franciscans and Oaklanders would give almost anything not to get stopped in the street, forced to turn out their pockets, pulled over for no reason, shot when they reach for their driver’s license, or just get the shit beaten out of them for ‘failure to comply.’ But though avoiding that future is worth everything to them tomorrow,

“The point is just that people usually only figure out that things are turning bad when they turn bad for them, and by then it’s too late. The time to act is when you still have privilege and power, not when you’ve had it stripped from you.”