Here's the point of this poll: https://lain.com/notice/ARyzWr2yraC72Bgzbs

Again, the interest rate is 4%. You are buying a piece of software and can either pay $300 once, or $1 every month. Which option should you choose?

In an economic sense, the options are actually identical. If you put the $300 into your bank account at 4%, you'll get $12 every year, which you can use to pay the $1 every month. So, if you actually plan to use the software your whole life, there is no real difference.

In this case it might actually be better to take the $1 subscription, because it will become cheaper than the $300 one time option if you ever change your mind, even if the sum payment is already above $300. Of course there are other considerations that might you lean one way or the other in real life, but the principle will still be the same.

This illustrates how important the price of future money (the interest rate) is in making economic decisions and that it's not just enough to 'sum up' dollars that are being spend over time if you want to compare them to present dollars.

It also shows how much more present money is worth than future money. If Microsoft gave you an xbox, but you had to give them $1 every month, until you die, would you do it? If not, why pay them $300 once?