What is the outlook for a society whose people seem incapable of delaying gratification?

Answer 1

I would say the outlook would be very poor. When somebody is incapable of delaying gratification it is impossible to set and meet long term goals. An ability to look into the future and see outcomes of waiting is vital to real success. When people take the first gratifying object they fail to acheive any real meaningfull ideals in life. The saying "good things come to those who wait" is very true. Those who need instant gratification are unable to wait for the right person to enter a relationship with. This creates a situation where individuals are hopping into and out of relationships and children who are born of these short term unions suffer greatly. They too in tern are not taught who to wait for gratification.

This is a society in which the very idea of waiting for anything is unbarable. They have an insatiable need to get what they want right now, but never truly gain what is so wanted as it is impossible to do so when it must be obtained now. Education takes time to achieve. Those who want to make money now, will often look for get rich quick schemes and stay poor as these usually never work. They fail to establish stable work historys, and solid work ethics due to the inabiltiy to sustain intereest when it shows something will take a while to achieve. This level of impatience will always fail the individual.

If a society is made up of only those who are incapable of delaying gratification that society is doomed. Nobody will develope skills and abilities which are needed to sustain any community. This creates a lack of communication skills. This is the major factor in any successful society. We must communicate with each other in order to get the things done which sustain any society. Those who are unable to learn communication, social skills, unable to have the patience to abtain higher education or any education at all, are kept far down on the ladder of acheivment. Think of the patience of scientists who often work years to achieve a medication which helps keep people well, or heals them. If they could not sustain and delay gratification they would give up within a very short period and nothing would ever get accomplished.

If the society was once at the first world level, it would quickly degrade into a third or forth world society or country. I understand this question relates to those in the United States. I want you to understand this failare in learning to delay gratificatio is a symptom of a first world country. Only those in such a developed enviroment have the "luxury" of denying delayed gratification. Those in less developed countries are too busy just trying to keep food in their children to develope the mind set of expecting needs to be met instantly.

It is up to us to teach our children to delay gratification. Parents need to stop giving children everything they desire as soon as they desire it, or even attempting to meet desires before the kids are aware they have the desire. They need to teach children to work, to earn what they receive, that nothing in this world is free or easily obtained, that the money is earned throught the hard work of somebody. They need to refrain from over providing for their children, this gives children the vastly mistaken idea that things come easily. This creates the "hand held out" syndrome facing developed countries. When children like this gain their majority, they are not prepared to face the worlds as adults providing for themselves and often stay home being supported while at the same time thinking they should be treated as adults. These kids are stunted, are behind in development, in maturity. This is the next generation and if we continue to produce children like this the United States and other "developed" countries will soon find themselves as the mercy of grown selfish men and women who in reality are still kids and do not have any ability to care for them selves let alone a country.

Scarey isn't it?

Answer 2

Well, without some delay of instant gratification, society would never save or invest. This would be disastrous for a society, as it would just eat up what they have now, and eventually run out of goods.

One interesting phenomenon is that the US has been saving very little for the last 30 years, and actually getting into debt with the rest of the world to finance this overspending. US is still the number one economy in the world, and so no one wants it to fail. As a result, the US is able to maintain a society where instant gratification is valued over saving/investment, without going down a death spiral.

No one knows how long this can go on. Many have talked about the demise of the US for a long time.