We Today's and Tomorrow's People of the United World: Rethinking Capitalism for Intergenerational Justice in the Fin-De-Milllnaire

Abstract

Globalization leveraged pressure on contemporary society. Today's most pressing social dilemmas regarding climate change, overindebtedness and aging Western world populations demand rethinking capitalism. Understanding the bounds of capitalism to avoid ethical downfalls beyond the control of singular nation states infringing on intergenerational equity – the fairness to provide an at least as favorable standard of living to future generations as enjoyed today – has become a blatant demand. In a history of turning to natural law as a human-imbued moral compass for solving societal downfalls on a global scale in times of crises; we may capture the human natural drive towards intergenerational fairness in order to retrieve information on how to implement intergenerational justice. Based on the idea of intergenerational equity as a natural behavioral law, the following paper theoretically outlines the current societal demand for eternal equity and proposes intergenerational justice implementation strategies. Intertemporal connectedness and interaction of overlapping generations enables intergenerational benefits transfers and burden sharing. Intergenerational mobility within intertemporal networks is enhanced through intertemporal opportunities as well as meritocracy alleviating intergenerational inequality. Overall, portraying intergenerational equity as a natural behavioral law strengthens the legal case for codifying intergenerational fairness on a global basis and contributes to interdisciplinary behavioral law and economic models on contemporary intertemporal predicaments. Exploring intergenerational constraints prepares to innovatively guide the implementation of eternal equity and intergenerational justice in overlapping generations’ intertemporal networks. Strengthening financial social responsibility, social welfare and environmental protection through future-oriented and socially responsible economic market approaches of capitalism in the 21st century is aimed at alleviating predictable economic, social and environmental crises to ensure a future sustainable mankind for this generation and the following.