If the value of happiness is in part determined by where it occurs, then equal amounts of happiness are not equally desirable regardless of recipient

Mill’s argument for impartiality—that that each person’s happiness is equally desirable—passes quickly, and many have found it problematic. Mill claims that “each person’s happiness is a good to that person, and the general happiness, therefore, a good to the aggregate of all persons” (Utilitarianism, X: 234). The argument is, in one sense, merely a reflection of Mill’s individualism (cf. System, VIII: 879). The underlying thought is that the good of a group of people can be no other than the su