Tuesday, February 17, 2004
Intergenerational Economics
I suspect that this concept will come into political prominence in the next decade – and the Letwin Trial balloon may be one sign of this. LibDems should be preparing our ground on this theme..
It does link in with our concern for ‘Sustainable’ environmental and industrial policies – the concept that we do not pass on to future generations extra burdens by, in effect, borrowing from the future to pay today’s bills. I can see Conservative economists making good use of the sustainable economy concept here.
If we pass on costs to the future our current spending is not sustainable.
Do we have a Libdem economics forum to take this up?
For basic discussion of Intergenerational Economics see Niall Ferguson ‘The Cash Nexus’ pp 215-221 Ferguson maintains that most developed countries fiscal policies are indeed allowing current generations to die insolvent leaving debts to their descendents. Correcting this requires either steep cuts in government transfers or substantial increases in taxation.
I suspect that this concept will come into political prominence in the next decade – and the Letwin Trial balloon may be one sign of this. LibDems should be preparing our ground on this theme..
It does link in with our concern for ‘Sustainable’ environmental and industrial policies – the concept that we do not pass on to future generations extra burdens by, in effect, borrowing from the future to pay today’s bills. I can see Conservative economists making good use of the sustainable economy concept here.
If we pass on costs to the future our current spending is not sustainable.
Do we have a Libdem economics forum to take this up?
For basic discussion of Intergenerational Economics see Niall Ferguson ‘The Cash Nexus’ pp 215-221 Ferguson maintains that most developed countries fiscal policies are indeed allowing current generations to die insolvent leaving debts to their descendents. Correcting this requires either steep cuts in government transfers or substantial increases in taxation.
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