ABSTRACT
The rate at which individuals are prepared to trade present for future benefits, usually in a capitalist society measured by money, is crucial to a vast array of decision-making – and this lies at the root of many social evils, ranging from the lack of savings in Western societies to smoking and other behaviours. Most academic studies have been one-off, cross-sectional data-set reviews, which are themselves reviewed. Then, using comparisons with other fields of study, and how the media has taken up such issues, the chapter points the way to how, with its focus on class and history, TSS can make a considerable impact at a practical level in STP studies. TSS can open the way to much more detailed, cooperative research that can reveal much more about the real causes of the differences in rates of discounting that have been observed, and how they change over time.
