Giving Compass' Take:

· Writing for the Cato Institute, Ryan Bourne expresses the importance of balancing the interests of current and future populations and creating a more future-focused government.

· How can the US create policies that balance the needs of the now and the future? What can be done to ensure that current policies do not jeopardize the future? 

· Check out this article about the future of public policy problem solving. 

The reaction was predictable.

Last week’s Climate Strike by schoolchildren was met with an inane debate about whether or not the pupils were right to “play truant”.

This dialogue of the deaf was a missed opportunity. Politicians should take seriously the protesters’ demand that they “recognise that young people have the biggest stake in our future”.

How we weigh policies which differentially impact today’s adults and future generations has been a recurring undercurrent of the last decade of British politics — including on deficit reduction and Brexit. It’s time we asked whether we get the balance right.

The children who went on strike last week were right to argue that future generations get a raw deal in policymaking. But this is a structural flaw of government action that extends far beyond carbon emissions.

Read the full article about a more future-focused government by Ryan Bourne at the Cato Institute.