Why do farmers want money NOW! And then spend it NOW!

The question is why are farmers basically willing to pay a fee to get money faster? Why are poor people willing to settle for less money if it comes sooner? Why would they make an irrational, and even stupid decision like that? The root cause is trust. Trust in each other, trust in the economy, trust in their own future. I think what they are buying is stability, predictability. You could want to get your money, put it in a bank and withdraw it later and buy some stuff bit by bit. If all things go as planned, you will have more than you would any other way. The problem is that plan A never works. A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush, or, put another way, $100 now is worth $150 in six months. You could be dead in 6 months, or someone else could die and you have to give their family money, or someone steals from you, or the price of copper drops, or any number of things happen, and then your future $150 becomes $50. So it’s better to just take what you can get while you can get it, yes it’s less, but it’s more than nothing. It’s like buying insurance for instability, but you get the settlement right away. You take your maize and sell it to the guy on the side of the road for 40 pin/bag instead of 65 pin/bag at FRA because FRA takes 6 months to pay, and after 6 months, a new guy is running the place and the old guy ran off with your money, and now you have no way of getting anything, meanwhile your idiot neighbor who sold to the guy on the side of the road, also doesn’t have money for inputs or mealie meal, but he has a swank radio that’s not going anywhere anytime soon.

The starving buffet. If you stop someone from eating for 2 days, but you tell them that on the third day you will take them to the best buffet dinner. Do you think they will put a reasonable amount of food, well portioned onto their plate? Would you? No! Instead you would fill up the plate with all the sugary and fatty foods you could find, because you earned it when you starved, and you want it and you can have it! That’s why I think people splurge when they first get paid, wasting valuable money for their futures.