2013-01-22
Explanation
This comic deconstructs the popular life advice that "20 years from now you'''ll think more about the things you did than the things you didn'''t do." The bespectacled character points out a flaw in this reasoning: the reason you remember what you did more than what you didn'''t do may simply be a cognitive bias -- things you actually experienced are easier to remember than hypothetical alternatives. It is not necessarily because the things you did mattered more.
The character then takes the argument further with an economic twist. By focusing on making memories (things you'''ll remember), you are really just paying a cost in the present to benefit your future self. But statistically, your future self is likely to be wealthier than your present self, meaning present-you is effectively subsidizing the happiness of a richer version of yourself. This is an amusing inversion of standard economic reasoning about wealth redistribution.
The punchline comes when the character uses this elaborate justification to rationalize eating pie and reading comics all weekend. When the bald man warns this may have repercussions for future-you, the character dismisses the concern with the retort about the future self being a "rich bitch" -- treating their own future self as an undeserving wealthy person. The votey panel shows the present and future selves calling each other "Fascist!" and "Hippie!" across a timeline, satirizing intergenerational political disputes recast as a conflict between one'''s present and future selves.