Total utility

Total utility
Definition: The amount of satisfaction obtained by consuming units of a good.
Related glossary term: ...

Total utility - The total satisfaction resulting from the consumption of a given product or group of products by a consumer in a period of time.
TQM - Total quality management.

TOTAL UTILITY CURVE
A curve illustrating the relation between the total utility obtained from consuming a good and the quantity of the good consumed.

Externalities of either the "positive" or the "negative" sort create a problem for the effective functioning of the market to maximize the total utility of the society.

The total utility of their work is probably much higher than the total utility of the work performed by workers who repair air conditioners. So why do air-conditioning repairmen earn more than child-care workers? Marginalism has the answer.

Utility was originally viewed as a measurable quantity, so that it would be possible to measure the utility of each individual in the society with respect to each good available in the society, and to add these together to yield the total utility of ...

See also: Law of Diminishing Marginal Utility, Marginal Utility, Total Utility, Utility
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Marginal utility The change in total utility due to a one-unit change in the quantity of a good or service consumed.

Therefore,when making decisions they base them on a limited choice. They are rational given limited choice and awareness of alternatives but they rarely maximise total utility because people don't want to take time to fully consider all options.

much UTILITY they get from consuming a particular good, aggregating this across all goods and SERVICES, and calculating how demand would change on the assumption that people will consume the combination of things that maximises their total utility.

See also: Tip, Perfect competition, Feedback, Marginal utility, National income