What sort of situation are you thinking of where X would be better than Y for one person and worse for none, but Y better than X all things considered?
I think of the concept of Pareto optimality as being useless because the path between the initial allocation, and a really good allocation, is usually littered with Pareto-optimums that must be broken through to get to the really good allocation. The really-good allocation is itself presumably Pareto-optimal. But you shouldn’t get into the habit of thinking that’s worth much.
What sort of situation are you thinking of where X would be better than Y for one person and worse for none, but Y better than X all things considered?
Doh! You’re right.
I think of the concept of Pareto optimality as being useless because the path between the initial allocation, and a really good allocation, is usually littered with Pareto-optimums that must be broken through to get to the really good allocation. The really-good allocation is itself presumably Pareto-optimal. But you shouldn’t get into the habit of thinking that’s worth much.