Chapter 8. Fairness for the Future (Sample Paragraphs)

This chapter would discuss the philosophy about the subtle relationship between current welfare and future prosperity.

Should we live for today or for tomorrow? This is a question that might sound simple but hard to get a clear answer.  The deceptive feature of the issue is that since tomorrow has not come yet, we might just give a happy answer that we live for both today and tomorrow. But in fact, this might not be a good answer practically as it might sound charismatically. This is because on one hand the consumption of resources including time for today might not be easily make up after today, but on the other hand the prosperity of tomorrow would also depend on the productivity of today, which would demand some consumption of resources.

 

Therefore, the question becomes a logically complicated issue of fairness between today and tomorrow, and some profound philosophical thinking is warranted in order to acquire a better solution to the question. Throughout human history, enormous man-made disasters were caused by erroneous treatment of current expenses and future interests. Two commonly known related issues are the issue of profitability and the issue of risk