Question

1. Adam Smith argued that an invisible hand would harmonize self-interest (Smith’s word was self-love) with the common good. Did Bentham agree? Why or why not?

2. Bentham stated that humans are governed by two sovereign masters. What are the sovereign masters?

3. To whom or what was Malthus responding when he formulated the population principle?

4. Is it correct to say that a severe form of diminishing marginal returns is embedded in Malthus’s population principle? Why or why not?

5. What is the grim stationary state?

Answer 1

1) Self interest is the factor which motivate the economic activity. Everyone is working for earning money but in this process everyone provide good or service. This process benefits society and economy of that particular nation. Bentham is disagree with this point of view. He called the self interest as the vice of greed. we clearly find the contradiction between smith and Bentham

Bentham thought that individual actions are motivated by desire for pleasure and dislike of pain.

2) Bentham stated that human are governed by 2 sovereign masters and they are pain and pleasure. He said " It is not possible for someone to be neutral on a subject or confused without having some bias''

3) Malthus was aware of increasing population. he explained human population exponentially while food production grows at an arithmetic rate. Malthus was responding to the situation of his own country and the the world he was looking around while he was formulating this population principle theory.

4) It would be not correct to say that a severe form of dimininishing marginal returns is embedded in malthus population principle. He explained very well in his principle that food production is not increasing while population grows. There is a mismatch between food production and population growth.