The Green New Deal has reignited old debates between the left and right in countries around the world. Setting aside climate deniers (if only it were that easy!), the argument is between those who believe a radical large-scale spending program to combat climate change will stimulate economic growth and those who fear it will inflate government debt, placing an undue burden on our children. This disagreement about how to stimulate the economy is nothing new and unlikely to be resolved in time to address climate change. So, before we return to the same old debates, we should pause, take a step back and reconsider our responsibility to future generations.
I recently came across a very interesting letter from Thomas Jefferson to James Madison. The letter concerned a concept called ‘usufruct’. This is the idea of a short term loan of property in which the recipient may enjoy the fruits of the property as long as they do not damage or wear it out. Jefferson writes that “the earth belongs in usufruct to the living”. Essentially, each generation’s entitlement to enjoy the fruits of the plant is temporary and predicated on the assumption that they keep it in good condition for their children. The word usufruct come from Latin and literally translates to ‘use of the fruits’. We can think of Jefferson’s earth as an orchard, each generation is allowed to pick the fruits, but they should not cut down the trees.
Writing in 1789, Jefferson’s ideas were mostly about the ownership of land and the inheritance of debt. In the letter, he argues that no generation should take loans that cannot be paid off within their lifetimes. However, in the interim between Jefferson’s letter and today’s society, our perceived relationship to the future has changed.
