Intuitively wrong to discount future over long time frames
Discounting the future is counter intuitive and unethical over long time horizons.
For example, at a "standard" 5% future discounting rate,
- one death today is worth 30 billion deaths in 500 years.
- one death in 200 years is worth 100 deaths in 300 years
Follow-ups
- It is OK to discount for risk, but not simply the passage of time. Future benefits that are uncertain are not worth as much as those that are.
- Humans have an innate bias for the present over the future
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