Discounting treats unborn generations’ lives as already in decline before they begin

Evidence

Even if future generations’ rateoftime preference somehow could be reliably predicted, a logical error still would infect the discounting practice, given that welfare maximization takes the relevant period of discounting to begin at the moment of policy calculation, before the lives of future generations have even begun. Again, if one is truly following the rationale of respecting individuals’ preferences, then discounting of future costs and benefi ts for time impatience should begin and extend only for the time period that the individuals affected by policy proposals are actually alive, experiencing impatience. The welfare maximizer instead adopts a constant rate and an uninterrupted period of discounting, one that is detached from any actual individual livesinbeing, either now or in the future. The maximizer adopts this counterintuitive approach because he has entertained a subtle, unacknowledged shift from the aggregation of individual welfare impacts to the agglomeration of welfare impacts as such, in a disembodied form. The maximizer essentially treats all members of future generations as if they were a single infi nitely lived interest holder. It is diffi cult to imagine, though, why future generations would consent to being treated in this manner— as if their lives were already in decline at the very moment that they come into being— when they themselves did not enjoy the period of youthful extravagance that was gained at their expense— by us. — Douglas A. Kysar, Regulating from Nowhere, 410

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Discounting sacrifices some future people for the benefit of others — Douglas A. Kysar, Regulating from Nowhere: Environmental…, 433; Cost-benefit logic could portray human extinction as welfare maximizing — Douglas A. Kysar, Regulating from Nowhere: Environmental…, 435; Projects of present preferences onto future generations fail because future contexts will differ radically. — Douglas A. Kysar, Regulating from Nowhere: Environmental…, 446

Broader Connections

• Projects of present preferences onto future generations fail because future contexts will differ radically. #expands (0.72) — Douglas A. Kysar, Regulating from Nowhere, 446