The Rubin causal model is based on the idea of potential outcomes. For example, a person would have a particular income at age 40 if he had attended college, whereas he would have a different income at age 40 if he had not attended college. To measure the causal effect of going to college for this person, we need to compare the outcome for the same individual in both alternative futures. Since it is impossible to see both potential outcomes at once, one of the potential outcomes is always missing. This dilemma is the "fundamental problem of causal inference".