Jobst Heitzig wrote: > Dear Abd ul-Rahman, > >>>> In a Range poll, social utility is maximized if everyone votes >>>> *absolute* utilities, accurately. >>> Only if "social utility" is defined so that your statement becomes >>> true by definition (and becomes a triviality thus). >> "Absolute utilities" means that the utilities are commensurable. Yes, >> it is a tautology. But it still should be said, because a great deal >> is written that ignores this. > > You mean, many people "ignore" that you choose to define "social > utility" as the sum of individual utilities, while others define it > otherwise? > >>> Welfare economics, however, does not define "social utility" as >>> the sum of individual utility, it rather defines "social welfare" >>> in some more sophisticated ways which we already discussed earlier >>> several times. >> That is also true. There can be utilities that combine in a nonlinear >> way. But how complicated do you want to make it? We have enough >> trouble getting a method in place that will optimize, to the degree >> that Range does, linear utilities, and many forms of utility *are* >> commensurable linearly. > > What do you mean by "commensurable linearly"? The question is simple, is > it better for society when one has 100 and the other 0 or when both > have 50. If the latter is considered better for society, then "social > utility" is obviously not the sum of individual utilities. That's what > welfare economics is about. >
Not to insert myself in a private conversation. But, I was under the impression that that an individual utility (Ui) function was usually defined as the log of some trade-able commodity. example Ui = Log($) So by extension welfare economics would still have reason to exist if the "social utility" (SU)was defined as SU = Sum(Ui) The trick is in my opinion identifying the trade-able commodity, in relation to elections. My guess at place to start would be something like a Gaussian of the distance between a candidate and each voter...or something like that ---- Election-Methods mailing list - see http://electorama.com/em for list info
