  In equation (3), future values of \(U\) are not discounted when viewed from the present moment, \(t\). This particular move has provoked more debate among economists and philosophers than any other feature of Ramsey’s theory of optimum saving. The debate has on occasion been shriller than even we economists are used to (see in particular Nordhaus, 2007). At the risk of generalizing wildly, economists have favoured the use of positive rates to discount future well-beings (e.g., Arrow and Kurz, 1970), whereas philosophers have insisted that the well-being of future people should be given the same weight as that of present people (e.g., Parfit, 1984).