Happiness is the measure of importance, not income/wealth/etc.
Society should strive to become as happy as possible as a whole. A person is encouraged to think about the happiness of not just him/herself, but also of the society as a whole. If an action will make person one happier than person two becomes unhappy (thereby increasing the total happiness of the society), that action should be done. Criticisms/Responses Not everyone has same intensity of preference/not everyone likes the same thing o This is not really that bad, and allows for someone who doesn't like a certain type of thing to give that to someone who does. This implies a Buddhist monk who doesn't value money should give his money to a financier who does value it (a.k.a. Nozick monster). o Again, this isn't necessarily a bad thing. If a person isn't made unhappy by giving up money, this shouldn't be an issue. Once a person reaches a level where he/she is unable to sustain a living, presumably his/her happiness will diminish and more funds will be allocated in that direction until an equilibrium is reached. Implies a sadist should be allowed to kill a person who does not value his/her own life. o We can either argue that this doesn't matter (a person who doesn't want to live should be allowed to die), or we could sidestep the issue and say that laws could still be put in place to forbid killing at the cost of minor decreases in the overall happiness. Hard to quantify happiness. o True. We can argue for the use a common sense principle where an action is taken only when it is known to increase the apparent happiness of the society. People are not awarded based on their actual contributions. o Because utilitarianism is based off of happiness and not income, they will be awarded best on what makes the overall group of workers (and therefore society) most happy. If a person feels unsatisfied with their award, their happiness will decrease and at some point an equilibrium will again be reached.
Karl Marx His philosophies and economic theories are nowcalled Marxism Ph.D. in Greek Literature Couldnt get a university position; became ajournalist Main work: Three volumes: Capital (Das Kapital) theLabor Theory of Value Positive Aspects: Asserts that people should not be able to makeincome because they are wealthy Asserts that people should not be rewarded fromthreatening to withhold their capital from production Negative Aspects (Not Predictive): No role for consumer demand No role for capital as an input Additional Marxist Critique Alienation: Under capitalism, workers produce butdont have control rights to control the productionprocess. They are alienated from the means ofproduction. Marxist Solution to Alienation: WorkplaceDemocracy workers get to choose how toproduce (worker cooperatives do this). Note: Marx was against private property whichmeans private ownership of production notprivate ownership of consumer goods.
Opening statement main points: Everyone wants to be happy Humans are constantly trying to achieve happiness throughout their lifetime. ] Utilitarianism adopts the idea that happiness is what needs to be emphasized when distributing goods amongst individuals Why is there constant struggle over large amounts of economic disparity when utilitarianism offers the solution to attempt to make the most people happy as possible? People who are unhappy with their situation cause unrest and struggle between groups who have/dont have utilitarianism provides a solution to this