 One proposal that easily comes to mind when faced with the Repugnant Conclusion is to reject total utilitarianism in favor of a principle prescribing that the average welfare per life in a population is maximized. Average utilitarianism and total utilitarianism are extensionally equivalent in the sense that they yield the same ranking when the compared populations are of the same size. They may differ significantly in different-number cases, however. This is easily seen when the average approach is adopted in the comparison of the populations in Figure 1 and Figure 2. That the average well-being is all that matters implies that no loss in average well-being can be compensated for by a gain in total well-being. Thus in Figure 1, A is preferable to Z, i.e., the Repugnant Conclusion is avoided. In Figure 2, A is preferable to A+, i.e., the Mere Addition Paradox is blocked at the very first step.