Intergenerational Exploitation

Earlier generations can jeopardise the opportunities, resources and well-being of their successors. Indeed, there is a growing unease with earlier generations leaving large-scale public debts to be paid by younger generations, and many worry that our policies and institutions are being shaped to advantage the interests of older generations at the expense of the young. While much theoretical (and empirical) literature now exists on the many ways in which earlier generations can unjustly jeopardise the well-being of their successors, very little has appeared on how the former’s decisions can generate specifically exploitative relationships. This is all the more surprising, in light of the fact that very large theoretical literatures exist on both intergenerational justice and exploitation. The aim of the article is to bring these two literatures into long overdue contact with one another and analyse an under-researched and yet fundamental problem – intergenerational exploitation. The article answers two questions. (1) What exactly is intergenerational exploitation? (2) What makes this type of exploitation wrong?

Public Debt, Cloud Computing Technology, and Leadership Crisis in the 21st Century

Recent literature on the economies of developed and developing nations identify a rise in the records of public debts which most industrialized nations continue to acquire for the purpose of sustaining their economies. Consequently, Nigeria, in 2017, recorded alarming public debts of N19.16trn, representing 10.37% ratio of debt-to-GDP. These figures, scholars infer, explain the disturbing degree of decay inherent in major government infrastructures. Adopting the ‘debt overhanging theory', Marilyn's ex-post facto research design, and Creswell's mix-method research approaches, the authors interrogate arguments posited for or against public debt management with a view to proffering ICT and cloud technology as panacea for curbing the alarming rise in the cases of public debt crisis and the leadership crisis raging in the countries under review. A high degree of political rascality among the ruling elite and the lacking of viable ICT-oriented public debt management tools among African polities were observed. A re-orientation of the ruling class with ICT techniques was recommended.