Summary of "Stubborn Attachments"

Core Idea

Maximize sustainable economic growth as your primary moral principle—it solves most human problems and delivers freedom, health, prosperity, and flourishing.
Protect near-absolute human rights as the only constraint on growth; nothing else should limit this imperative.
Small differences in growth compound into civilizational transformation: a 1% higher growth rate over 110 years creates 3× greater prosperity.

Wealthier societies deliver better medicine, longer lives, greater autonomy, stability, justice, and meaning.
Since 1900, U.S. living standards increased 5–7×; infant mortality, disease, poverty, and work hours all collapsed.
Future generations benefit most from present growth—don't discount their lives just because they're born later.
Colonial-era institutional choices still predict regional wealth today; growth effects persist for centuries.

Stop using market discount rates to devalue the future; a future person's wellbeing isn't worth less because they exist later.
Use the overtaking criterion: prefer policies where one growth path stays systematically higher than another over long horizons.
Deep concern for the distant future is rational, not irrational—it's the only justification for investing in anything today.

Redistribute only to maximize sustainable growth, not to achieve equality or charity.
Over-generous welfare reduces work incentives, discourages entrepreneurship, and lowers long-term growth.
Most effective anti-poverty tools: immigration, technological innovation, and growth itself—not wealth transfers.
You're not obliged to give away 80% of income; common-sense morality and growth maximization broadly align.

You can't predict long-term consequences; don't let that paralyze action.
Focus on large, obvious benefits (preventing bioterrorism) over small, murky ones (a dog's broken leg).
When consequences blur, rights provide moral clarity: don't murder innocents even if abstract effects are uncertain.
Be epistemically humble—you're probably wrong on specifics, even if your general growth direction is sound.

Evaluate all decisions by growth impact: Does this increase sustainable, long-term prosperity? If yes, prioritize it.
Defend institutions that enable growth: strengthen property rights, rule of law, free markets, immigration, and scientific freedom.
Invest over consume: save for future generations; capital compounds over centuries.
Respect human rights absolutely except in genuine civilizational collapse (which almost never occurs).
Be humble on means, united on the goal: you probably disagree on how to achieve growth, but agreement on the objective matters most.