Utility Curves, Total Utility, and Consumer's Surplus

Abstract

Introduction, 292. — The concept of total utility, 293. — Relativity of utility to rates of consumption, 294. — Ambiguity of the word utility: potential utility and satisfaction actually enjoyed, 295. — Intra-marginal surpluses of utility from sporadic and intermittent consumption, 296. — Conclusion, 298. Recognized difficulties of dealing quantitatively, by means of demand schedules, with the subjective background of economic phenomena, 303. — Relativity of demand schedules to rates of consumption, 304. — Doctrines of consumer's surplus: ( a ) Bargain purchases of intra-marginal utility, 308; ( b ) The addition to one's total utility that attends a decline in price, 311; ( c ) Life's excess of utility over the disutility of earning a living, 313. — Résumé, 315.