PIGOU AND FUTURE GENERATIONS - A CAMBRIDGE TRADITION

In The Economics of Welfare and elsewhere Pigou took the view that fut ure people should be treated equally with present people. He stressed our defective telescopic faculty, mortality and weak linkages over tim e and argued that the present generation would consequently devote too few resources to investment, particularly in human capital. He linked his argument with the then contemporary controversies about natural r esource conservation and about eugenics. This 'Cambridge tradition' ho lds that issues of generational justice leave an important role for th e state and cannot be resolved simply at the level of the individual o r the family. (C) Academic Press Limited