> You seem to be assuming that utility ends up being linear in money, so let’s stick with that assumption.
> For a function to convert dollars to utils u($), u’($)>0, u″($)<0
^^^non-linear function^^^
^^^U″($)!=0^^^
[/snark]
That is important, though. The whole point of the thought experiment was that the strictly selfish result (I buy $100 of ice cream) is different from the Kaldor-Hicks/utility efficient outcome (I overpay for a widget) in a situation where my (normally very utilitarian) moral intuition backs the selfish action. Your scenario is only equivalent if you take the U″($)=0 condition which I explicitly rejected.
> You seem to be assuming that utility ends up being linear in money, so let’s stick with that assumption.
> For a function to convert dollars to utils u($), u’($)>0, u″($)<0
^^^non-linear function^^^
^^^U″($)!=0^^^
[/snark]
That is important, though. The whole point of the thought experiment was that the strictly selfish result (I buy $100 of ice cream) is different from the Kaldor-Hicks/utility efficient outcome (I overpay for a widget) in a situation where my (normally very utilitarian) moral intuition backs the selfish action. Your scenario is only equivalent if you take the U″($)=0 condition which I explicitly rejected.