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“When budget allows” is a mystical, [[hypothetical]] time in the future that, like Little Orphan Annie’s ''Tomorrow'', is always there, dangling tantalisingly before us, as each day turns, getting no nearer. It is an [[Indeterminate liability|indeterminate]] time of hope and aspiration: a sunlit dream-time in which there ''will'' be budget to hook up that feed, build out that [[API]] or invest in that brilliant piece of [[legaltech]], for which there is no budget ''now''. | “When budget allows” is a mystical, [[hypothetical]] time in the future that, like Little Orphan Annie’s ''Tomorrow'', is always there, dangling tantalisingly before us, as each day turns, getting no nearer. It is an [[Indeterminate liability|indeterminate]] time of hope and aspiration: a sunlit dream-time in which there ''will'' be budget to hook up that feed, build out that [[API]] or invest in that brilliant piece of [[legaltech]], for which there is no budget ''now''. | ||
Logicians will immediately sense a [[paradox]]. If | Logicians will immediately sense a [[paradox]]. If its worth ''now'' fails to pass muster, its [[present value]] should it be delivered at an unknowable point in the henceforth is surely smaller still. The aperture constricts the further out we push. Through what of contortion in the [[Space-tedium continuum|spacetedium continuum]] must we crawl to reach that happy land? | ||
Their suspicions will be confirmed by that glint in the [[middle manager]]’s eye. Presented with some supplicant’s woe-filled entreaties for the proposed expenditure, he will happily promise to sort it all out ''just as soon as budget allows''. He will say this with confidence and without regret, while maintaining eye contact. He can assure, in good conscience, that all will, at that time, be well. For that time — the notional time in the future ''whjen budget allows'' is, literally, unknowable, in that ''it will never be known''. | Their suspicions will be confirmed by that glint in the [[middle manager]]’s eye. Presented with some supplicant’s woe-filled entreaties for the proposed expenditure, he will happily promise to sort it all out ''just as soon as budget allows''. He will say this with confidence and without regret, while maintaining eye contact. He can assure, in good conscience, that all will, at that time, be well. For that time — the notional time in the future ''whjen budget allows'' is, literally, unknowable, in that ''it will never be known''. |