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Understanding compound interest
I have a bunch of thoughts on this, but it will take me more time than we have. This is because I am a philosopher and not an economist. But my 'buddies' are economists, so let me refer you to them: http://www.economist.com/news/leaders/21694309-king-debt-alberta-oil-and-how... http://www.economist.com/blogs/prospero/?comments#article_continue
My point is this: "Compound interest" in the financial sense refers to an exponential growth. In other words, a steady increase that tends toward infinity over time (or at least a very long period of time). So it's pretty obvious that compound interest matters for any kind of future projection.
But the future is not yet here. The most important thing to consider right now is whether or not we're headed toward a global collapse, and if so when it will come.
Strangely enough, our best bet for answering these questions are economists. Another thing to keep in mind is that we don't know how long the current economic situation will persist or what will eventually happen.
So, for now I am mostly talking to economists and not philosophers. But there are two things that we can say about compound interest, regardless of who is doing the thinking: 1) It matters a lot; 2) it may be irrelevant.
It matters a lot because compound interest is an exponential growth. The longer it goes, the bigger the effect will be on humanity.