If you have ever invested in the stock market, you will have probably heard someone say, “Jam tomorrow”.
It is an English idiom used to describe a promise of future reward or improvement that never actually materialises. In the stock market it is often used to describe companies that promise a lot to their investors but actually deliver very little.
It is an idiom that captures the frustration of repeatedly being told that something desirable will happen “tomorrow” or at some point in the future, when in reality, nothing changes.
The “jam” is rarely delivered.
It is a criticism that implies a consistent failure to deliver a promise or implied benefit. We have all probably experienced the promise of better times ahead, but when the future arrived, little had changed.
Politicians have lived off the promises of “jam tomorrow” for years.
History and Origins
The idiom can be traced back to Lewis Carroll’s 19th-century satire, Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There (1871).
The White Queen offers Alice “jam every other day” if she will work for her.
