I have had this question for a bit. Here it is:
If your actions harm someone else by initiating aggression, they are unjustified.
But what if they harm someone in the future?
Assume global warming (climate change) is real for a second (idk the general libertarian belief on this and am not sure there is one or whether libertarians believe the topic relevant at all).
But assume it is for now. And I can scientifically and definitively prove that my pollution (from Wheylous Corp) will raise sea levels in the (distant) future enough to flood people's houses in Japan.
1) Am I liable?
2) If so, now or later? (I'd assume later)
3) Am I committing a fallacy by thinking that this large expanse of time invalidates my fault? Using a reductio, I could argue that me shooting a guy in the leg is the same thing, what with the bullet taking time to travel.
4) What if the person is not yet born? Am I liable then? If my actions in the past will cause a person in the future property damage... Should you apply caveat emptor (buy beware) and say that it is my fault and I should have analyzed the consequences of my actions? Or do you apply ceaveat to the person in the future who builds his house on the water, arguing he should have foreseen my flood waters? I'd side with the guy on the water. But what if he inherited the house? Caveat again on him? It seems like the most just principle to apply would be to say that the person who inherited the land should have done so knowing that there was a flood wave coming and didn't have to accept the property (sort of like saying he should not have walked in front of the bullet when he was in fact not in its path 3 seconds before). Yet someone's property still gets damaged, even if not this "son," the previous owner... (Note that in my deliberations as I write this I mix inheritance with homesteading with just plain ownership in presenting a bunch of cases; sorry if I am confusing; I can separate them out if you'd prefer).
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5) Can I justifiably threaten an unborn person? As in "I will kill your future granddaughter" (this said to someone who is, say 22 and doesn't even have kids yet)
6) Can I justifiably threaten someone in a realm which is not known to exist? "I will kill your reincarnation" or "I will hurt you in heaven"
I named the thread "Time propagation" because it deals with issues separated out by time.
You may find these previous discussions interesting:
Intergenerational Rights -- In search of a libertarian perspective
Intergenerational Compensation -- How can it be done?
Your unwillingness to accept an intergenerational obligation to your own unborn children suggests something about the entire notion of "intergenerational obligation." In particular, you're not just extending the notion of contract; you're radically departing from methodological individualism. You believe in an abstract "next generation," but you don't believe in anything as concrete as "your own unborn children."