When treating themselves to luxuries such as travel or a new car, retirees sometimes make light of the fact that they are spending the kids' inheritance.
Their feelings are mixed. They are enjoying the fruits of their life's labour, and of their stewardship of the wealth they themselves have inherited. They are also diminishing the pool of wealth available to subsequent generations of their family.
Hopefully they can avoid guilt and unnecessary self-sacrifice by hitting the 'sweet spot' that represents their present and future family's common good, where both current and subsequent generations are provided for in equal measure.
We also need to formulate policies and enact legislation to do this as as a nation. Forward thinking for the intergenerational common good is relevant to many areas of public policy that are currently being shaped. Examples include aged care and the curbing of carbon emissions.
Politicians are tempted to make policy on the run that appeals to voter greed rather than the instinct to provide for a better life for future generations. But they don't need to. Kevin Rudd won the 2007 election with policies that included addressing the 'moral challenge' of climate change. His fortunes changed when he turned his back on this.
The policy area that cries the loudest for responsible stewardship at this time is mining revenue.
The current resources boom is allowing some Australians to live the good life while much of the rest of the world, and many fellow Australians, endure one of western civilisation's worst economic recessions. Australia has more wealth than it knows what to do with. Author and researcher Paul Cleary calls it 'dumb luck' in his new book Too Much Luck: The Mining Boom and Australia's Future.
He says many other countries — and indeed Australia during the 1890s — have previously been caught by the resource trap: a heady period of boom and growth, followed by a painful bust. We can make the boom last through a serious and immediate commitment to a sovereign wealth fund that is protected from likely attempts of politicians to raid it.
Cleary cites Norway and East Timor as examples of countries that are preserving wealth for future generations. Paradoxically Australia tends to believe that it can teach East Timor about nationhood and has nothing to learn from our small neighbour.
He says that while we have have Timorese students coming here to learn about how to manage their oil sector, we should be sending people to East