The paper shows that if utility is cardinally measurable and fully interpersonally comparable, if costless lumpsum transfers are possible, and if the utility profile satisfies (a) a happier person has lower marginal utility of the numeraire or wealth, and (b) “everybody is equally unhappy in...

I argue the compatibility of progress with Rawls's maximin principle when applied to individual utility functions which are "nonaltruistic" in the sense that any transfer of consumption goods from old to young (resp. from young to old) lowers (resp. increases) old people's utility. The paper...