what more, what i was saying was that you ascribe a certain utility to the consumption of a particular good or service. x=1, y=2 and z=3 in my example above. x, y and z's are the goods. the numbers are the cardinal and absolute utilities gained from the consumption of those goods. in your example, people have different preferences for different things. for example, 1 prefers x to y and y to z, and so on.....what i am saying is actually very simple.... if utilities were cardinal and absoute, for example, then everyone would have the exact same preference structures (or were forced to consume goods based on a pre-defined structure by the state). everyone would say that red cars give a utility of 1, green cars a utility of 2 and tan cars a utility of 3... in other words, the preference structure you show for the three individuals would not be possible, and this probelm would not arise. of course we are all different and have different preferences, which is why the problem becomes interesting...