Average utilitarianism is treated as being so obvious that it does not need any explanation in Garrett Hardin's essay "The Tragedy of the Commons", where he points out that Jeremy Bentham's goal of "the greatest good for the greatest number" is impossible. Here he is saying that it is impossible to maximize both "population" (not total happiness) and 'good' (which he takes as meaning per capita happiness), although the same principle of course applies to average and total happiness. His conclusion "we want the maximum good per person" is taken as being self-evident.