Ian Shapiro continues his Yale course on the moral foundations of politics with a lecture on Jeremy Bentham's utilitarianism and its redistributive implications. He walks through the principle of diminishing marginal utility, the argument that equalizing resources maximizes aggregate happiness, and the traditional critiques leveled against that reasoning. Shapiro details Bentham's own attempt to blunt the radical implications of his theory, including the claim that the rich would burn their crops rather than surrender them, and his distinction between absolute and practical equality. The lecture then tests these ideas against real cases: Reagan's 1980s tax cuts, the economic restructuring of pre- and post-apartheid South Africa, and arguments over stimulus spending. A closing segment turns to whether rights can survive inside a framework built entirely around aggregate welfare. Recorded for Yale's Moral Foundations of Politics course, the lecture runs continuous discussion between Shapiro and his students throughout.