This time, instead of moving oceans and healing planets, let's get our bills in order and pay down the debt so we control our own future.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
We can pay our debts to the past by putting the future in debt to ourselves.
We can pay the ecological debt by changing economic models, and by giving up luxury consumption, setting aside selfishness and individualism, and thinking about the people and the planet Earth.
What we owe future generations is the subject of growing debate by economists, philosophers, ethicists, public policymakers, and academics of all stripes. But for me as a mother, the moral implications are very clear. We owe them clean air and fresh water, a healthy planet and a secure future.
We have been maintaining a standard of living by putting things on the debt of the next generation.
Instead of leading the world by how much we borrow, it's time that we make sure we lead the world in how much we build and create and invest.
We need to take command of the solar system to gain that wealth, and to escape the sea of paper our government is becoming, and for some decent chance of stopping a Dinosaur Killer asteroid.
We owe it to each other - and to our children and grandchildren - to leave our planet in a better state than when we found it.
I think at the end of the day we have to raise the debt ceiling, because America pays its bills.
The biggest change we have to tackle that's out there is that we're digging the hole deeper and deeper and spending is totally out of control. And that's something that, quite frankly, is affecting future generations. You're giving a lot of debt to them and you can't keep doing it. It's not helping anybody.
The human world is a long way from meeting the needs of the present, and it is borrowing massively from the future - not only by piling up money debt, but also by degrading the resources from which all real wealth ultimately comes.