my brain made me do it

And speaking of political turns of events, those of us here in the over-educated belt are kind of shocked to see that a good-looking "regular-guy" defeated an older, not overly charismatic, but very articulate and intelligent woman. There were lots of factors that led to his victory, and one of the major ones was his "No new Taxes" pledge -- the pledge of every conservative since Reagan. The pledge that has led to huge deficits, and then, under Bush W, to huge differences between the sinking middle-class and the fewer and fewer who have more and more.

But brains do that -- us humans are somewhat programmed to take the short-term over the longer term. We always seem to have a sense that there may not be a long-term so lets take what we can right now. That is part (again, only part) of the reason people have affairs. When the heat gets turned up, it is very easy to convince yourself to enjoy what the moment has to offer. Your mind can jump to the idea that it won't matter, you won't get caught, or simply that you will deal with it later, but right now is RIGHT NOW!

This is certainly the thinking (and lack of logic) that goes with addictions. When something is what you want, what you crave, the future consequences seem to diminish, if not disappear entirely.

So it isn't surprising that people who feel that they have less money in their wallet, will vote to keep it there, and try to avoid thinking that we are all turning into California, where even their great university system, which is part of why Silicone Valley was so successful, is crumbling, and they still don't want to pay.

Long-term planning takes maturity. Even Freud defined part of being mentally healthy as being able to delay gratification. But, we can always do that later.