The Case for Discounting the Future

摘要

Though economists appear to discount future well-being when evaluating the costs of climate change, plausible justifications of this practice have not been forthcoming.The methods of economists thus seem to contravene the requirements of justice by discounting the moral importance of future well-being simply because it exists in the future. I defend the practice of discounting the future against the charge of injustice on grounds that moral theorists of different stripes can accept. I argue that, because public policy choices are 'identity-affecting', the probability that some policy choice will constitute a harm for members of a population diminishes the further we look into the future. This constitutes a plausible justification of discounting the future.