On 5/10/05, Robert Scott Gassler <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >... If you argue that a particular economy should have a particular W, you are talking about a normative social welfare function. If you assume a particular form for it, you are neoclassical, or linear, or egalitarian, or Rawlsian, or whatever.
>A Marxist would place heavier emphasis on the u's of the workers than a neoliberal. If alpha1 were "freedom [of business from certain government controls] and alpha2 "equality of income distribution," then a Marxist would care more about the latter than the former, and a neoliberal would be the opposite. >It is hard to refute because it is a notation or general logical formulation, not a political point of view. though I hardly think there are many Marxists who would bother with it. < on the last point, absolutely right. Marxism rejects utilitarianism in general, since there's a distiction between "what people want" (utility, preferences, felt needs) and "human psychological, physical, and social health" (objective needs, societal collective self-realization). -- Jim Devine [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://myweb.lmu.edu/jdevine
