Intergenerational Ethics

Intergenerational ethics addresses our moral obligations to people who don't yet exist—future generations who will inherit the world we leave them. The core challenge is that future people have no voice, no vote, no representation, and no bargaining power in today's decisions, yet they bear the consequences of climate change, national debt, resource depletion, nuclear waste, and institutional degradation. Standard economic thinking 'discounts' future welfare, making present benefits worth more than future costs—but at typical discount rates, the welfare of people 100 years from now is nearly worthless, which seems morally indefensible.

When to use it

When making decisions with consequences extending beyond 20 years. When evaluating policies that shift costs from present to future (debt, environmental degradation, deferred maintenance). When designing institutions, infrastructure, or systems meant to endure across generations.

How it can help

When making long-horizon decisions—infrastructure, policy, institutional design, investment—explicitly consider impacts on people who will be affected decades or centuries from now. Challenge the default discount rate: asking 'How would we weigh this cost if it fell on us rather than our grandchildren?' often reveals that intergenerational discounting is self-serving rather than principled. For organizational decisions, think about institutional sustainability: are you building something that will benefit future stakeholders or extracting value at their expense? The Iroquois principle of considering the 'seventh generation' provides a practical heuristic for decisions with long time horizons