Thirty years ago, if you wanted to see a TV programme, you had to plan ahead, stay in, settle down, and watch it when it was being broadcast.

Then came the video recorder. All you had to do was set it to capture the programme, then you could watch it later - but you still needed to plan ahead, dialling in the channel, date and time to the machine.

But now we have the digital iPlayer and which lets you watch or listen to radio and TV programmes which have already been broadcast some time ago on your PC, so you can fit them in to your hectic schedule.

The only practical problem is that the sheer volume of data-traffic generated by this personal narrow-casting' risks swamping the whole internet, bringing it to a grinding halt.

This area of new domestic technology does offer an interesting metaphor for the "credit crunch" - that impending disaster of the finance world which currently jeopardises our lifestyles.

Forty years ago, if you wanted to buy anything substantial, you economised for while, saved up, then bought it.

Then along came credit cards, allowing you to have something now and pay later. Initially, these were issued carefully but as time went on, the banks relaxed standards in pursuit of crude market growth, eventually providing cards to almost anyone. There followed increasing personal credit limits. You didn't need to plan ahead about whether you could repay it or not - it was there for the taking. So we took it.

Mortgages also used to be difficult to obtain, necessitating a proven savings record, a substantial deposit and reliable employment prospects to convince the lender of your ability to repay the loan amount, and all its interest, over the required term. But those lenders also got greedy, relaxing their standards, offering 125 per cent mortgages' and interest-only' loans - anything at all to bring more people, and more big debtors, onto their books. So, no need to plan ahead or think about your career direction and arrange your home loans to fit with what you should be able to afford.

But all this credit was only ever going to go one way - downwards. People had been encouraged to leave tomorrow to look after itself. And now, as the global credit markets evaporate, and those over-exposed lenders and borrowers seek to realign their positions with changed circumstances, there'll be repossession and bankruptcy for some time to come.

Property prices will stumble, businesses will contract, employment will reduce and the whole nation's operating standard will drop a few rungs - during which time, thousands of people will suffer financial shocks as the chickens of their restricted foresight come rushing home to roost. And they will look for someone to blame.

When we go back to that metaphor of TV, the VCR and the iPlayer, we can see that the effect of this parallel development has also been to persuade people yet again that they don't need to think ahead - they can take every day as it comes and expect to catch up later.

Therein lies the human problem of the technology of today. It has convinced a whole generation that those old-fashioned values of thrift, prudence and forward-planning can be forgotten, and that we can all live for today, leaving tomorrow to take care of itself.

The credit crunch is about to prove just how wrong such technology-fed assumptions can be - tomorrow is about to happen!