The decreasing marginal value is the amount of fuzzies your donation lets you feel.
If you get 10 utilons from doing something that saves one person’s life, perhaps you get only 12 from doing something that saves two people’s lives.
Decreasing marginal satisfaction from doing more to help a problem is the cause of scope insensitivity—people feel bad knowing that they aren’t helping, and feel good knowing that they are.
What would the decreasing marginal value be in the charity example? If we’re just talking fuzzies, isn’t that scope insensitivity?
The decreasing marginal value is the amount of fuzzies your donation lets you feel.
If you get 10 utilons from doing something that saves one person’s life, perhaps you get only 12 from doing something that saves two people’s lives.
Decreasing marginal satisfaction from doing more to help a problem is the cause of scope insensitivity—people feel bad knowing that they aren’t helping, and feel good knowing that they are.