Big customers are paying later and suppliers are demanding cash earlier, while orders are slowing.
The Air Force seems to think that paying later will be easier.
The key is to reverse the habit of spending first and paying later, with interest.
Some companies are offering energy performance contracts in which schools defray upfront costs, paying later through savings in energy costs.
"The trouble is most of those buying now and paying later have little idea of just how crippling debt can be, nor the sizeable sums of interest they will end up paying," he says.
Mr. Kotlikoff argues that over a lifetime most people spend just about everything they earn from their work and investments, so that those who avoid taxes on their savings now would end up paying later when they consume their wealth.
That may help consumers in the short run, but it won't do anything to mitigate the impact of EpiPen price increases on the medical system as a whole, and it only means consumers will end up paying later, in the form of higher premiums.
And, given the choice of paying now or paying later, which would you rather do?" He entered law practice, he said, because he thought he'd be good at it, because he thought he could help people, and because, after twenty-three years in medicine, he was burning out.
