 While the desert-as-multiplier idea gets some cases right, it gets other cases very wrong. Think again of Smith and Jones, deserving 10 and 20 units of welfare, respectively. Suppose that, if you do nothing, Jones will live a life worth 100 units, and Smith will live a life worth 0 units. Your only two options are to act so that Jones lives a life worth 110 and Smith “stays where he would have been” (he lives a life worth 0), or act so that Jones stays where he would have been, and Smith lives a life worth 10. The table below shows the values of the worlds that correspond to each of your options, according to this theory: