Abstract
In this essay I propose a new measure of social welfare. It captures the intuitive idea that quantity, quality, and equality of individual welfare all matter for social welfare. More precisely, it satisfies six conditions: Equivalence, Dominance, Quality, Strict Monotonicity, Equality and Asymmetry. These state that (i) populations equivalent in individual welfare are equal in social welfare; (ii) a population that dominates another in individual welfare is better; (iii) a population that has a higher average welfare than another population is better, other things being equal; (iv) the addition of a well-faring individual makes a population better, whereas the addition of an ill-faring individual makes a population worse; (v) a population that has a higher degree of equality than another population is better, other things being equal; and (vi) individual illfare matters more for social welfare than individual welfare. By satisfying the six conditions, the measure improves on previously proposed measures, such as the utilitarian Total and Average measures, as well as different kinds of Prioritarian measures.
Highlights
Quantity, quality, and equality of individual welfare—these are the three factors most commonly held to affect the social welfare of a population
Three conditions may be eliminated from further discussion: Quantity, Maximal Equality, and Equality
This leaves us with six conditions: Equivalence, Dominance, Quality, Asymmetry, Strict Monotonicity, and Limited Equality
Summary
Quality, and equality of individual welfare—these are the three factors most commonly held to affect the social welfare of a population. –An equality condition, according to which a population with a higher degree of equality (in a specific sense of “equality”) is ranked above a population with a lower degree of equality, in comparisons between populations with the same total and average welfare In addition to these five conditions, the conjoint measure satisfies:. The measure has a somewhat complicated form It will be presented later in this essay, the plan of which is as follows: I make some necessary assumptions regarding the measurability of individual and social welfare; in the third section I present the conditions concerning quantity, quality and equality; in the fourth section I introduce the measure and explain its design; in the fifth section I address some possible objections, and in the sixth section I make some concluding remarks.
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