Fisher says the rate of interest is based in part on the preference for present versus future goods, or human impatience. The chief other part is an objective element, investment opportunity. Fisher's human impatience is essentially like what other economists have called "time preference" or some similar term. Böhm-Bawerk called it the "perspective undervaluation of the future." It's the marginal want for present goods versus future goods. Indeed, Chapter IV of Fisher's book is titled "Time Preference (Human Impatience)." He treats these terms as synonyms.
Fisher's explanation of time preference differs from others in that he makes income -- rather than, say, goods or wealth -- central. "The degree of impatience varies, of course, with the individual, but when we have selected our individual, the degree of his impatience depends on his entire income stream, beginning at the present instant and stretching indefinitely into the future" (Theory of Interest, p. 66).
I can't remember him specifically addressing the impatience or time preference of many people who "live payday to payday" with all their income coming from labor. Surely they have a very high time preference for immediate income to satisfy their desire to spend, often limited to rent, food, and other essentials. When I posted Interest As Cost Immediacy in April, 2016 I was not aware of Fisher's term impatience, but it it would have been an apt alternative.
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