By Andrew L. Yarrow|June 10, 2008
"Blessed are the young, for they shall inherit the national debt," Herbert Hoover quipped 80 years ago. Today, the United States has $9.4 trillion in federal debt and another $50 trillion in unfunded government promises to future generations. Some joke.
What this represents is a fiscal millstone for future generations and a moral travesty for all of us.
Many philosophers - and even some politicians - have recognized that social morality is ultimately about stewardship: preserving a good world for future generations. Such thinking, deeply rooted in our culture, has gained new traction in discussions of climate change. Parallels with federal debt and our economic future are obvious. The Greek root for ecology and economy is the same; oikos means "home."
If we trash our home for our grandchildren, hasn't our moral compass gone haywire? Are our short-term desires - driving ozone-destroying cars or spending beyond our means - blinding us to consequences for Americans living 30 or 50 years from now?
Just as climate change is not only an environmental issue, debt is not only an economic issue. Both are profoundly moral. And the way to capture the public's attention and achieve results on these issues is to address them in forthrightly moral terms. We should not shy away from pointing out what is right and what is wrong.
The debate about our nation's fiscal problems - frequently deceptive and drearily laden with statistics - is on the wrong track. Debt is a moral issue; by any objective standard, it is wrong to beggar your children.
To hammer home the message that we must reduce government debt and bring spending and revenues into line, citizens and leaders need to reframe the issue. Sex scandals and embezzlement are moral small potatoes compared with robbing future generations. While most people don't yet see the issue that way, recent research shows that otherwise complacent Americans become outraged and galvanized to action when the debt crisis is presented as a moral one, rather than in the policy minutiae of changing Social Security benefit formulas or toughening budget process rules.
"It's a terrible thought knowing that my generation will have to pay for mistakes made before we were even able to vote," said a 20-year-old participating in a new college-based Public Agenda initiative about federal fiscal issues. This isn't intergenerational war - yet - but the sense that the powers that be have forfeited their moral authority is growing and is firmly based in fact.
