Hypothetically, if I have time preference and other people don’t then I would agree to coordinate on a compromise. In practice, I suspect that everyone have time preference.
Most people do indeed have pure time preference in the sense that they are impatient and want things earlier rather than later. However, this says nothing about their attitude to future generations.
Being impatient means you place more importance on your present self than your future self, but it doesn’t mean you care more about the wellbeing of some random dude alive now than another random dude alive in 100 years. That simply isn’t what “impatience” means.
For example—I am impatient. I personally want things sooner rather than later in my life. I don’t however think that the wellbeing of a random person now is more important than the wellbeing of a random person alive in 100 years. That’s an entirely separate consideration to my personal impatience.
Most people do indeed have pure time preference in the sense that they are impatient and want things earlier rather than later. However, this says nothing about their attitude to future generations.
Being impatient means you place more importance on your present self than your future self, but it doesn’t mean you care more about the wellbeing of some random dude alive now than another random dude alive in 100 years. That simply isn’t what “impatience” means.
For example—I am impatient. I personally want things sooner rather than later in my life. I don’t however think that the wellbeing of a random person now is more important than the wellbeing of a random person alive in 100 years. That’s an entirely separate consideration to my personal impatience.