Apples and oranges — part III: Bookkeepers and enforcers

Despite the criticism it attracts (which is mostly aimed at a caricature or at inappropriate application), utilitarian thinking is a valid guide to decision making. But while it can certainly handle pleasure and pain, it does have its limits and, perhaps surprisingly, cannot really be used on its own.

(This is the final part of 3 linked articles — here are the first and the second.)

Here is a simple question: what would you enjoy more, discovering in your jeans, as they come clean out of the washing machine, the unusable remains of a £20 (or equivalent) banknote that you forgot to remove, or spotting the note and removing it from the pocket before it gets mangled? My guess is that you would prefer the latter. That makes perfect sense: having less money is objectively the worse condition to be in.

Yet, every time you go to the shop to buy something, you walk out with less money than you had when you walked in. Are you daft or what? Of course not: you get something in return, and at that precise moment, you value what you are buying more than the money it costs you. You weigh up the pleasure of…