Extend and Pretend Can't Work Forever

The default operating model today for seemingly all economics, business, social policy and environmental decisions is "extend and pretend," colloquially known as "kicking the can down the road." This approach brings forward benefits or gains, often based on cosmetic solutions, and defers risks or costs into the future. It's a convenient model for many reasons. But it's now in danger of breaking down.

Extend and pretend is predicated on financialization, especially time-value concepts that favor the near term while discounting future events. It may also be a consequence of the human predilection for immediate gratification. To adapt Thomas Hobbes, we seem to have decided that only the present is real because the past is memory and the future has no reality.