Suppose Society Consists of Three Individuals: Phil, Jay, and Mitchell

question 88

Multiple Choice

Suppose society consists of three individuals: Phil, Jay, and Mitchell. Phil has $60,000 of income, Jay has $200,000 of income, and Mitchell has $100,000 of income. A utilitarian would argue that

• A)taking $1 from Mitchell and giving it to Phil would increase society's total utility.
• B)taking $1 from Mitchell and giving it to Jay would increase society's total utility.
• C)taking $1 from Phil and giving it to Jay would increase society's total utility.
• D)None of the above are correct because all three individuals have sufficient income.

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Definitions:

Ordinal Data

Data that can be categorized or ranked in order, but the intervals between ranks may not be equal.

Interval Data

A type of numerical data where the difference between two values is meaningful, but there is no true zero point, allowing for comparisons of differences but not ratios.

Nominal Responses

Answers to survey questions that are categorized into groups without any inherent numerical value or order.

Ordinal Responses

Data that represent categories with a meaningful order but not necessarily equidistant intervals between categories.