There is a very obvious reason why even if we do not care about the future at all, our decision to use our capital stock to earn income and consume has an irreversible bearing on outcomes available for future generations. Consider, for instance, a situation where our consumption is exactly the same as our income. Therefore, we do not save at all, not even keeping allowance for replenishing the physical depreciation of the capital stock. As a result, not only would the stock not be augmented, it would decline over time, reducing income, and hence consumption opportunities in the future. Another possibility is that we consume (either through greed or through compulsions of survival) more than the current income, that ...
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