In his book Utilitarianism, John Stuart Mill says, “It is better to be a human being dissatisfied than a pig satisfied; better to be Socrates dissatisfied than a fool satisfied. And if the fool, or the pig, is of a different opinion, it is because they only know their own side of the question. The other party to the comparison knows both sides.” (Mill, 1901:14)
The salient features of the human predicament are biological needs, wants, limited resources, and limited information and intelligence. In combination, these factors guarantee the persistence of a certain level of human dissatisfaction, not only because scarcity and competition mean that the satisfaction of some people's wants and needs can only come at the expense of others' but also because "there is no reason to assume that the needs, wants, and interests of any one individual will ... form what might be called a consistent set." (Warnock, 1971) There are, of course, things that theoretically could be done to improve our situation, but here again we are confronted with certain sad facts about human beings--our limited rationality and limited sympathy.
Human beings are "not just naturally disposed always to do what it would be best that they should do, even if they see, or are perfectly in a position to see, what that is."(Warnock, 1971) They are "naturally somewhat prone to short-run rather than long-run considerations,"(Warnock, 1971) and while "rational" in the minimal sense of being able to envision alternatives, to deliberate, and to decide, "they are not all just naturally, or indeed in any other way, rational in the more exacting sense of being regularly disposed to deliberate well and to act accordingly."(Warnock, 1971) Worse yet, "most human beings have a natural tendency to be more concerned about the satisfaction of their own wants........
