professor2013 only

THE TIME HORIZON

   Under current legislation, the age at which a qualified person is eligible to draw full social security retirement benefits from the Social Security Administration is 67 years of age.  If we hypothesize that you are currently 20 years old, then you will be eligible for social security 47 years from now, in the year 2061.  This is more than 17,000 days from now.

   According to US Census figures for U.S. residents, by approximation, a male who is currently 20 years old has an average of 55.3 years until his expected age of death, while a female who is currently 20 years old has an average of 60.1 years until her expected age of death.  {Source:Statistical Abstract of the United States 2012; calculations from Table 105, p77.}

    Please write an expository essay which follows these prompt questions:

   Do you care about the future?  How much do you care about the future?  Use economic thinking and economic analysis to describe how you think about and plan for the future.  Is it economically logical to think about the future?  Explain.  What is the optimal amount of your time and energy to use to think about and make plans for your future, and how far out into the future?

   Use economics to describe how much a person cares about the future, and how they think about and make plans regarding their future, influences the way they make choices and decisions in the present?  How closely does this general description of time-horizon-based economic thinking apply to you and the choices which you make for your life in the present?  Explain.

   Is there any sense in which we can rationalize a person thinking about the time after they are dead and gone?  Explain.

    Please follow and address the prompt questions.  Creative thinking is encouraged as long as you are covering the core questions as well.  Use your understanding of economic thinking and economic behavior.  Your Main Study Report should be approximately a 4-8 page typed work.  My personal preference is for 1.15-paced lines in a 11- or 12- font, with 1-inch margins.  Use appropriate citation of outside sources as necessary, gathered in a bibliography at the end of the report, but these can be broadly referential, since this is a work of exposition, not a research paper as such.