>The underlying assumptions in this discourse make no sense to me. I >made a number >of comments re Brad's stuff but there was no response. > Just a few random notes. > 1) What is utility? > 2) Is utility measurable in cardinal terms? > 3) Are interpersonal comparisons of utility possible? Well, we make them all the time: any government policy--any political program--makes such interpersonal utility comparisons. I myself don't think that Benthamite utility exists. But I do think that it is useful for thinking about distributional questions to suppose that it does exist--and that people try to maximize it. This is a matter of taste, I agree. But it seems to me that going down the non-utility road ultimately traps you into a language of "rights" that can become very inhumane, or risks giving too little weight to the preferences that people express... Brad DeLong
