首页
外语
计算机
考研
公务员
职业资格
财经
工程
司法
医学
专升本
自考
实用职业技能
登录
外语
In the preceding chapter, economic welfare was taken broadly to consist of that group of satisfactions and dissatisfactions whic
In the preceding chapter, economic welfare was taken broadly to consist of that group of satisfactions and dissatisfactions whic
admin
2013-01-28
29
问题
In the preceding chapter, economic welfare was taken broadly to consist of that group of satisfactions and dissatisfactions which can be brought into relation with a money measure. We have now to observe that this relation is not a direct one, but is mediated through desires and aversions. That is to say, the money that a person is prepared to offer for a thing measures directly, not the satisfaction he will get from the thing, but the intensity of his desire for it. This distinction, obvious when stated, has been somewhat obscured for English-speaking students by the employment of the term utility——which naturally carries an association with satisfaction——to represent intensity of desire. Thus, when one thing is desired by a person more keenly than another, it is said to possess a greater utility to that person. Several writers have endeavored to get rid of the confusion which this use of words generates by substituting "utility," in the above sense for some other term, such as "desirability". The term "desiredness" seems, however, to be preferable, because, since it cannot be taken to have any ethical implication, it is less ambiguous. I shall myself employ that term.
Generally speaking, everybody prefers present pleasures or satisfactions of given magnitude to future pleasures or satisfactions of equal magnitude, even when the latter are perfectly certain to occur. But this preference for present pleasures does not——the idea is serf-contradictory——imply that a present pleasure of given magnitude is any greater than a future pleasure of the same magnitude. It implies only that our telescopic faculty is defective, and that we, therefore, see future pleasures, as it were, on a diminished scale. That this is the right explanation is proved by the fact that exactly the same diminution is experienced when, apart from our tendency to forget ungratifying incidents, we contemplate the past.
Our analysis also suggests that economic welfare could be increased by some rightly chosen degree of differentiation in favor of saving. Nobody, of course, holds that the State should force its citizens to act as though so much objective wealth now and in the future were of exactly equal importance. In view of the uncertainty of productive developments, to say nothing of the mortality of nations and eventually of the human race itself, this would not, even in the extremest theory, be sound policy. But there is wide agreement that the State should protect the interests of the future in some degree against the effects of our irrational discounting and of our preference for ourselves over our descendants. The whole movement for "conservation" in the United States is based on this conviction.
It is the clear duty of Government, which is the trustee for unborn generations as well as for its pre sent citizens, to watch over, and, if need be, by legislative enactment, to defend, the exhaustible natural resources of the country from rash and reckless spoliation.
Plainly, ff we assume adequate competence on the part of governments, there is a valid case for some artificial encouragement to investment, particularly to investments the return from which will only begin to appear after the lapse of many years. It must, however, be remembered that, so long as people are left free to decide for themselves how much work they will do, interference, by fiscal or any other means, with the way they employ the resources that their work yields to them may react to diminish the aggregate amount of this work and so of those resources.
What does, according to the author, economic welfare consist of?
选项
A、a general sense of contentment with any individual being part of a group.
B、a basic duality or dichotomy between the amount of pleasures that one individual can experience and discontentment.
C、the act of measuring the amount of gratifications and dissatisfactions with a measure of value.
D、the relentless idea that people have to forfeit in expiation for their pleasures.
答案
B
解析
文章第一句话就说明经济福利包含了所有与用金钱衡量有关的满意与不满意的集合,应该选B;A只说到一方面,错误;C强调它是一种金钱衡量的行为,错误;D明显不符。
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/GR1O777K
0
考博英语
相关试题推荐
Thirty-onemillionAmericansareover60yearsofage,andtwenty-ninemillionofthemarehealthy,busy,productivecitizens.B
Womenhavesignificantadvantagesovermeninspacebecausetheyneedlessfoodandlessoxygenandthey_____radiationbetter.
Inrecentyears,manyAmericansofbothsexesandvariousageshavebecomeinterestedinimprovingtheirbodies.Theyhavebecom
Inrecentyears,manyAmericansofbothsexesandvariousageshavebecomeinterestedinimprovingtheirbodies.Theyhavebecom
Inrecentyears,manyAmericansofbothsexesandvariousageshavebecomeinterestedinimprovingtheirbodies.Theyhavebecom
Inrecentyears,manyAmericansofbothsexesandvariousageshavebecomeinterestedinimprovingtheirbodies.Theyhavebecom
Theprocessofrespirationconsistsoftwoindependentactions:inhalingandexhaling.
BackinSeattle,aroundthecornerfromtheDiscoveryInstitute,StephenMeyerofferssomepeer-reviewedevidencethattheretruly
What,then,doesDruckersuggestarethenewknowledge-basedindustriesonwhicheconomicgrowthwilldepend?Hediscussesthree
随机试题
Thenewspapersreportedyesterdayseveral______ontheboundariesofthesetwocountries.
入射光强度为透射光的100倍时。照片密度值应为
在对危险性进行控制时,可能采取限制能量措施的是()。
美发店应配备充足的、受过培训的初级理发师,雇佣他们来为顾客洗头、打扫美发馆和进行一般性的勤杂工作。这样能确保造型师集中精力为美发店创收而不会浪费时间。从价值链分析角度看,这一措施属于企业的()。
中央电视台播出的美食类纪录片《舌尖上的中国》,为人们带来了一场视觉的饕餮盛宴。纪录片从中华美食的多个侧面,展现了食物给中国人生活带来的仪式、伦理等方面的文化,下列关于中国饮食文化的表述错误的是()。
我国现行分税制把税种划分为( )。
阅读材料,回答以下问题:重庆中央党部,暨中央执监委员诸同志均鉴:今年4月,临时全国代表大会宣言,说明此次抗战之原因,曰:“自塘沽协定以来,吾人所以忍辱负重与倭国周旋,无非欲停止军事行动,采用和平方法,先谋北方各省之保全,再进而谋东北四省问题之合理解决,
收养关系的成立之日是()
根据下属材料回答题后问题:材料1列宁指出:“就本来的意义说,辩证法就是研究对象的本质自身中的矛盾。”他还指出:“是实际生活中的实际矛盾,即辩证的矛盾,而不少字面上的、臆造出来的矛盾。”材料2杜林说:“矛盾的东西是一个范畴。这个范畴只能归属于思想
SpaceTourism[A]Makeyourreservationsnow.Thespacetourismindustryisofficiallyopenforbusiness,andticketsaregoi
最新回复
(
0
)