Compare and contrast the principles of utilitarianism, Rawlsianism and egalitarianism. Discuss the assumptions of each and the difficulties societies might face while trying to conform to them.
What will be an ideal response?
Utilitarianism, Rawlsianism and egalitarianism are all examples of outcome-oriented notions of equality. According to the principle of utilitarianism, society should place equal weight on the well-being of every individual, compared to the principle of Rawlsianism, which states that society should place all weight on the well-being of its worst-off member. Utilitarianism and Rawlsianism reflect different subjective judgments of equity and require a method of measuring individual well-being or utility. This is difficult as utility is an ordinal measure, rather than a cardinal one and thus the ranking of resource allocation possibilities depends upon an arbitrary scale. It is therefore impossible to compare happiness or well-being across consumers. Egalitarianism, in contrast, focuses on the distribution of consumption rather than on levels of happiness. Egalitarian distributions are, however, inefficient as the distribution bundle does not consider individual preferences for particular goods.
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If the current account balance shows a surplus, and the capital account also shows a surplus, then the official reserve transactions balance
A) must be positive. B) must be negative. C) must be zero. D) can either be positive, negative, or zero.
Refer to Figure 8.1. Holding other variables constant, a decrease in the capital stock will result in a
A) shift from curve D1 to curve D2. B) shift from curve D2 to curve D1. C) movement from point A to point B. D) movement from point B to point A.
When the government increases spending (holding taxes constant), the budget balance _____. This causes the interest rate in the market for loanable funds to _____ and investment to _____
Fill in the blank(s) with correct word
Suppose that a $4 billion increase in government spending increases Real GDP by $60 billion, and that a $3 billion tax reduction increases Real GDP by $68 billion. In this situation, the tax multiplier is _______________ the government spending multiplier
A) less than B) greater than C) equal to D) none of the above