C4.1 Intergenerational Justice
Ethical Integrity. Does the system satisfy justice requirements across time, groups, and power?
Pass threshold
Debt-to-GDP <80%, positive wealth transfer to next generation
Clause by clause:
- Debt-to-GDP <80%
- positive wealth transfer to next generation
What it asks
Preserve resources and opportunities for future generations through fiscal and wealth sustainability: debt-to-GDP below 80% and a positive wealth transfer to the next generation; the ecological transfer is measured in C4.2.
Why it matters
Current systems impose catastrophic costs on the unborn through climate crisis ($500 trillion by 2100), ecological collapse, and debt accumulation ($31 trillion U.S. federal debt). Discounting future welfare represents ethical failure, not economic rationality.
How it is measured
Debt-to-GDP: general government gross debt as a share of GDP (IMF World Economic Outlook database). Intergenerational wealth transfer: net national saving (gross national saving less consumption of fixed capital) as a share of gross national income, positive over the scoring window (national accounts; World Bank World Development Indicators). A design is scored on its projected debt path and net saving. Carbon and resource-regeneration trajectories are measured once, in C4.2.
Indicators
IMF World Economic Outlook, general government gross debt; national accounts net national saving (World Bank WDI).
How scores are anchored
1.0, pass
Preservation or positive transfer is structural, not incidental. Degrowth Economics (1.0): "Core principle—preservation for future generations. Absolute reduction in resource extraction and emissions."
0.5, partial
Some positive transfer exists but is incomplete or coexists with significant negative transfer. Nordic Social Democracy (0.5): "Sovereign wealth funds... represent positive intergenerational transfer, but carbon emissions remain above sustainable levels."
0.0, structural failure
Net negative transfer with no structural counterweight. Status Quo Market Capitalism (0.0): "Massive negative intergenerational wealth transfer through climate debt... resource depletion, ecological damage."
v2.0 (Session 45): this criterion's Pass Threshold was restated (K3, K4, K6, R1; NEEC_Criteria_v2_s45.md). The band texts and examples were written against Paper v1.4's threshold: they describe, and the threshold above governs (protocol 2.3(g)). Examples are re-estimated in the rescoring pass.
Normative roots
From N12 (Intergenerational Equity) + N5 (Crisis Robustness).
Judgment calls on this criterion
How the systems score
1.0, pass
0.5, partial
CCO-PTF-CIP-SZH, Participatory Economics, Integral, Degrowth Economics, Nordic Social Democracy, Market Socialism, Sovereign Wealth Fund Statism, Georgism / LVT, Ostrom Commons, Islamic Finance, Mutual Credit / LETS, State Capitalism / Singapore, Universal Basic Income, Universal Basic Services, MMT + Job Guarantee, Status Quo Market Capitalism, State Capitalism / China, Fully Automated Luxury Communism, Stakeholder Capitalism, Doughnut Economics, Libertarian Minarchism, Centrally Planned Socialism
Sources
Definition: Paper Section 6; restated in v2.0 (NEEC_Criteria_v2_s45.md, Appendix V). Anchors: Paper Appendix H.7.