ABSTRACT
The life of a people is conceived as a scheme of cooperation spread out in historical time. It is to be governed by the same conception of justice that regulates the cooperation of contemporaries. The just savings principle applies to what a society is to save as a matter of justice. If its members wish to save for other purposes, that is another matter. Of course, the parties must throughout keep in mind the objective of the accumulation process, namely, a state of society with a material base sufficient to establish effective just institutions within which the basic liberties can all be realized. The just savings principle can be regarded as an understanding between generations to carry their fair share of the burden of realizing and preserving a just society. The appropriate expectation in applying the difference principle is that of the long-term prospects of the least favored extending over future generations.
