Our Obligation to Future Generations

Are We Obliged to Consider the Welfare of Future Generations?

A comment about the impact of our actions on the future - in two parts.

PART ONE: A Comment for People who THINK

Below are two quotations.  Both suppose that the present generation has a responsibility to future generations.  Apart from that, they appear to be contradictory.  Thomas Jefferson seems to be telling us not to obligate future generations.  Reinhold Niebuhr seems to be saying that we must undertake multi-generational projects.

So must we include the welfare of future generations as a factor in all our planning and projects?  Should we, or should we not, undertake multi-generational projects?  May we, or may we not, force debt or obligation upon future generations?

At first, Niebuhr and Jefferson seem to be making opposite points.  But upon further consideration the two statements become less and less contradictory.

 NIEBUHR

“Nothing worth doing is completed in our lifetime.” 

(Reinhold Niebuhr)

Niebuhr expresses his opinion of the need to engage in grand plans, schemes that are bigger than any of the participants, undertakings that are bold and ambitious, so important that we must begin even though we personally will not live long enough to see the objective attained.  This position is undergirded by the belief that we and our descendants and successors are connected, and that we must do our part to make their world better.

Without commitment like Niebuhr describes, most of the great accomplishments of humanity would never have been undertaken, much less completed.  Consider all the accomplishments that would not have been undertaken if those who began them were not subjugating their own welfare to that of subsequent generations.  The great cathedrals of Europe would not have been built.  The American Revolution would not have happened.  Vincent Van Gogh would not have created his paintings.  Voyager I would not have been launched.

Of course, an undertaking may have immediate value as well as value to future generations.  Witness the advances of science over the past few centuries.  As Isaac Newton said, “If I have seen a little further it is by standing on the shoulders of Giants."  The scientific advancements of Newton and his contemporaries benefited from the incremental advancements of previous generations, and at the same time, established a new framework for even greater advancements.

 JEFFERSON

"It is incumbent on every generation to pay its own debts as it goes… The principle of spending money to be paid by posterity, under the name of funding, is but swindling futurity on a large scale." 

(Thomas Jefferson)

It is irrational to expect someone else to pay one’s own bills.  You might think this would be obvious, but history shows that it is not.  If one attempted to balance his own accounts by obligating his neighbor, he might be called a leech, or a fool, or a thief.  Yet governments routinely obligate future generations to pay for current expenditures.  Every time the government pays for any thing with borrowed funds, they are passing the cost to future taxpayers.  This is a form of theft, theft from descendants. 

According to Jefferson, no project should be undertaken unless those who initiate the activity, from the original generation, are able and willing to pay their fair portion, and unless there is consensus that future generations will inherit more value than debt.

The emphasis of both of these commentators is that we the current generation should put the wellbeing of our descendants above our own welfare.  We should not burden them for our own benefit.  Neither should we neglect to undertake projects or advancements which promise to improve their world and increase their wellbeing.

Wouldn’t any good parent put the wellbeing of the child ahead of the comfort of the parent?  What would you think of a mother who failed to plan for the welfare of her children, who neglected to educate them or provide what they need for survival?  She has violated Niebuhr’s advice.  What would you think of a father who impoverished his children in order to acquire comforts for himself?  He has violated Jefferson’s advice.

Reinhold Niebuhr tells us that we MUST undertake multi-generational projects for the betterment of humanity.  Thomas Jefferson tells us that we MUST NOT obligate future generations for our own benefit.  They are both right.

PART TWO: A Comment for People who FEEL

       They are our children.

 

     They need us to love them enough.

CONCLUSION 

Your reason and your heart both tell you the same thing.  Our children are going to inherit the world we build for them.  Consider them.  Honor them.  Do the right thing.  Love them. 

Gryphem