- Please post all quotes separately, so that they can be upvoted or downvoted separately. (If they are strongly related, reply to your own comments. If strongly ordered, then go ahead and post them together.)
- Do not quote yourself.
- Do not quote from Less Wrong itself, HPMoR, Eliezer Yudkowsky, or Robin Hanson. If you'd like to revive an old quote from one of those sources, please do so here.
- No more than 5 quotes per person per monthly thread, please.
- Provide sufficient information (URL, title, date, page number, etc.) to enable a reader to find the place where you read the quote, or its original source if available. Do not quote with only a name.
I'm surprised by your surprise. It might be hindsight bias on my part, but not wanting to save money in a totalitarian Communist society makes perfect sense to me. Live for today, because tomorrow you might be locked up or the government might embark on some bone-headed 5-year economic plan and your money would be worthless.
When you look at national savings, 5-year plans suggest that the savings rate should be higher, because the government is forcing people to invest money that they otherwise might have consumed. [Edit] Also, a feature of econ textbook... (read more)