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
2006-06-06
67
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 self-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 present 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, if 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.
In the third paragraph, which of the following is closer to the truth?
选项
A、The author rejects the idea the aid distributed by the government should benefit the less fortunate individuals.
B、Any given government is answerable for preserving and protecting the economic interests of new generations.
C、Mankind is intrinsically doomed and will be extinct in the near future regardless of the actions taken by any government.
D、People have opposing views over state intervention in the field of socio-economic policy.
答案
B
解析
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/EDIO777K
0
考博英语
相关试题推荐
•Lookatthenotesaboutmultinationalcorporations.•Someinformationismissing.•Youwillhearpartofapresentationb
•Lookatthenotesaboutmultinationalcorporations.•Someinformationismissing.•Youwillhearpartofapresentationb
Whenwilltheymeet?Wheredoesthewomansuggestthatthemangetchange?
CORPORATIONS
Lookatthenotesbelow.Someinformationismissing.YouwillhearajournalisttalkingtotheHeadofPublicRelationsofala
Whatdoesthewomansuggestfornon-drinkers?
Thereviewersuggeststhatoneadvantageofthebookisthat______.Whichpartsofthebookdidthereviewermostenjoyreadi
EmilyThedateandtimeyousuggestedarefine..I’llbookeverythingandaskforfourcopiesofthereportweneedtolooka
BacktotheshopfloorotAttwood,ChiefExecutiveofAttwoodPublicity,hasattractedtheattentionofhisindustrybygoingto
Thereare,forexample,widelydifferingviewsofthepotentialvalueoftheassets______.
随机试题
行政机关在作出行政处罚决定之前,应当告知当事人作出行政处罚决定的事实、理由及依据,并告知当事人依法享有的权利。
小叶性肺炎的病变特点是
艾滋病的传播途径不包括
急性细菌性痢疾的临床表现,不典型的是
为了解决计算机CPU处理速度快,外设速度慢的矛盾,计算机采用了()技术。
教育费附加以( )为税基。
北京××商贸有限公司(1101210078)委托辽宁×××进出口公司(2101910061)与韩国签约,为河北××钢铁有限公司(1312931542)进口B50-71A型电动叉车。货物运抵进境后,由大连××货运代理公司(2102981013)向进境地海关申
战略咨询委员会是由中国移动通信集团公司邀请()、国内外知名经济法律学者、电信业知名人士和电信技术专家组成。
某单位需要派出下乡扶贫人员1至2人。经过宣传号召,众人纷纷报名。经过一番考虑,领导最后将扶贫人选集中在小王和小张两人身上。大家对最终的挑选结果作了如下猜测:(1)小王会被挑选上;(2)如果小王被挑选上,那么小张就不会被挑选上;
语言处理程序用于将源程序转换成机器语言形式,语言处理程序将进行语法、语义等方面的检查工作。语言处理程序包括汇编程序、编译程序和______3种。
最新回复
(
0
)