Will MacAskill’s new book: Reminds me of Niall Ferguson’s 2012 Reith Lectures. I clip the relevant part on inter-generational accounts here (link to complete audio and transcript): Transcript (of clip) from the BBC: The heart of the matter is the way public debt allows the current generation of voters to live at the expense of those as yet too young to vote or as yet unborn. In this regard, the statistics commonly cited as government debt are themselves deeply misleading, for they encompass only the sums owed by governments in the form of bonds. The rapidly rising quantity of these bonds certainly implies a growing charge on those in employment, now and in the future, since – even if the current low rates of interest enjoyed by the biggest sovereign borrowers persist – the amount of money needed to service the debt must inexorably rise. But the official debts in the form of bonds do not include the often far larger unfunded liabilities of welfare schemes like – to give the biggest American programs – Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security.
Was Edmund Burke a pioneering longtermist?
Was Edmund Burke a pioneering longtermist?
Was Edmund Burke a pioneering longtermist?
Will MacAskill’s new book: Reminds me of Niall Ferguson’s 2012 Reith Lectures. I clip the relevant part on inter-generational accounts here (link to complete audio and transcript): Transcript (of clip) from the BBC: The heart of the matter is the way public debt allows the current generation of voters to live at the expense of those as yet too young to vote or as yet unborn. In this regard, the statistics commonly cited as government debt are themselves deeply misleading, for they encompass only the sums owed by governments in the form of bonds. The rapidly rising quantity of these bonds certainly implies a growing charge on those in employment, now and in the future, since – even if the current low rates of interest enjoyed by the biggest sovereign borrowers persist – the amount of money needed to service the debt must inexorably rise. But the official debts in the form of bonds do not include the often far larger unfunded liabilities of welfare schemes like – to give the biggest American programs – Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security.