I just came across an essay David Friedman posted last Monday The Ambiguity of Utility that presents one of the problems I have with using utilities as the foundation of some "rational" morality.
I was going to say that the second function punishes you if you don't provide at least a little y, but that's true of the first function too.
I just came across an essay David Friedman posted last Monday The Ambiguity of Utility that presents one of the problems I have with using utilities as the foundation of some "rational" morality.