Problem
Irresponsibility towards future generations
Experimental visualization of narrower problems
Other Names:
Intergenerational inequityIrresponsibility for the long-term future of the planet
Irresponsibility towards posterity
Denial of the rights of posterity
Discounting the future
Obscured intergenerational needs
Nature:
Future generations (persons who are not present today, not even born or conceived) are going to be affected, positively and negatively, by what present generations do.
Incidence:
Effects on future generations are often ignored when decisions about large-scale resource policies and about far-reaching technologies are made. Future discount rates used in economic planning effectively forbid planners from taking much notice of costs and benefits to be felt no more than thirty or fifty years in the future. This is now an anachronism, because it has become quite evident that technologies and environmental activities have reached a point where they have much more far-reaching effects on the future than before.
Narrower Problems:
Human eugenicsVulnerable childrenInadequate adult guidanceIrresponsible policy-makingDenial of the rights of foetusesUnrecognized future financial commitmentsExclusion of pre-adults from family decisionsShort-range planning for long-term developmentUnconstrained exploitation of natural resourcesIncompatibility of long-term thinking and financial prioritiesUnaccountability of institutions degrading the environment Aggravates:
Inadequate response to societal needsUncertainty of survival of the human racePlacement of the burden of proof on the disempowered Reduced By:
AnthropocentrismStrategies:
Orienting economic policy toward social needEstablishing equal rightsPromoting voluntary human extinctionAdvocating intergenerational equityArticulating future visionRecognizing intergenerational needsDenying rights of posterityReducing inequality between generationsPreserving inequality between generations Subject(s):
Amenities → Living conditionsEarth → Earth
Policy-making → Future
Societal Problems → Deprivation
Societal Problems → Irresponsibility
Society → Family
Related UN Sustainable Development Goals:
Problem Type:
F: Fuzzy exceptional problems Date of last update
04.10.2020 – 22:48 CEST