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
69
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 opening paragraph, why does the author prefer to use the term "desiredness"?
选项
A、Because it seems more catchy and refers to a specific semantic field.
B、Because nobody else has ever used the word before, it therefore exemplifies the author’s original and unique ideas.
C、Because it helps native English speakers to grasp the conceptual idea expressed in this passage.
D、Because it clears any misunderstanding relating to the distinction made in the first paragraph.
答案
D
解析
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/IDIO777K
0
考博英语
相关试题推荐
Readthisarticlebelowabouttheimportanceofcorporatepublicrelations.Choosethebestanswerfromtheoppositepageto
Readthisarticlebelowabouttheimportanceofcorporatepublicrelations.Choosethebestanswerfromtheoppositepageto
Lookatthestatementsbelowandthetextaboutthemarketingprincipleontheoppositepage.Whichsection(A,B,CorD)doe
Lookatthestatementsbelowandthetextaboutthemarketingprincipleontheoppositepage.Whichsection(A,B,CorD)doe
Readthearticlebelowabouttheconceptofmarketing.Inmostofthelines(34-45),thereisoneextraword.Iteitherisgra
•Lookatthenotesaboutmultinationalcorporations.•Someinformationismissing.•Youwillhearpartofapresentationb
Lookatthenotesbelow.Someinformationismissing.Youwillhearanemployeeispresentinghiscompanytoaprospectiveclien
EmilyThedateandtimeyousuggestedarefine..I’llbookeverythingandaskforfourcopiesofthereportweneedtolooka
YoungJohnshowednoconsistencywhenhedidexcellentworkthefirstpartoftheyearandverypoorworkafterthat.
Large,multinational,corporationsmaybethecompanieswhoseupsanddownsseizeheadlines.Buttoafargreaterextentthanmo
随机试题
(2012年真题)下列关于法的本质的表述,正确的是()。
临床教师与其他教师的最大区别是()
2008年3月3日和5日,在北京分别召开了全国政协和全国人大第
块茎呈不规则扁圆形,2-3个爪状分枝百合科植物的块根
广东某公司与美国仙童公司合资经营瑞迪科微电子有限责任公司,双方就各方权利义务签订了合营企业合同,后又签订了合营企业协议,协议对合同的一些实质内容作了修改,在合营企业经营了一段时间后双方发生争议,由于合同和协议的实质内容有差异,那么,解决他们之间纷争的依据是
工业建筑及总平面设计中的场地应符合()的要求。
下列有关循环的一些叙述,其中不正确的是()。
某件刺绣产品,需要效率相当的三名绣工8天才能完成;绣品完成50%时,一人有事提前离开,绣品由剩下的两人继续完成;绣品完成75%时,又有一人离开,绣品由最后剩下的那个人做完。那么完成该件绣品一共用了多少天()
中国古代对一种刑罚有如下描述:“既杖其脊,又配其人,而且刺其面,是一人之身,一事之犯,而兼受三刑也。”该材料描述的刑罚是()。
SugaryFoodsTherearetwotypesofsugar/—thosefoundnaturallyinfruitandmilkandthosethatareaddedtothediet./
最新回复
(
0
)