Talk:Economic anthropology

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

"Underlying individuals' pursuit of utility maximisation is the principle of diminishing marginal value, meaning that obtaining more of a particular good or service only increases the utility (or value) derived from it up to a certain point. When this point is reached, the overall utility gained will actually diminish. A certain amount chocolate makes a good dessert, but too much will hurt the stomach. The right quantity of water can ensure a good crop, while having too much will drown it. "

This is not the definition of diminishing marginal value. In reality increases in utility become smaller with every extra unit of a good, but they are still generally positive. In general utility isn't reduced by acquiring extra units.

From the Wikipedia article on marginalism: "The law of diminishing marginal utility refers to the marginal utility of each additional unit of a good having less value than the previous unit. For example, the marginal utility of an additional slice of bread to a person with few slices will be great. But the marginal utility of an extra slice of bread to a person with many slices will be small."

This doesn't imply decreases to utility after a point. So, for very large values, the added value of another slice of bread would tend to be zero, but still in general be positive.