As an alternative to the quite radical theoretical move of positing multiple sub-self-level agents—biologically ingrained homunculi competing for control of the person—we can thus account for the behavioral complex described by Ainslie and others in terms of overarching institutional and normative logics within capitalism. The tendency to discount hyperbolically makes sense when seen in the context of the logic according to which wage labor is justifiable. The tendency to discount exponentially, on the other hand, expresses the rationalized, calculative dimension of modern capitalism, most famously described by Max Weber (1992, 2013). If this interpretation is correct, then rather than holding that the two kinds of discounting reflect the operation of discrete cognitive systems in the brain, we can connect each to behavioral norms associated with a particular social position. To the degree that the logics underlying each rate of discount might have some normative claim on the behavior of economic agents, we can expect to observe the behavioral inconsistencies that Ainslie interprets as evidence of the existence of multiple selves. In some contexts, for example when investing profits, the exponential style of reasoning is dominant, while in other contexts, for example when deciding what to do with money wages, the hyperbolic one prevails.
A Theory of Mass Consumption as Wage-Labor Commensuration
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