Critical Reasoning — Implicit Assumptions Statement: “Equality of income throughout a community is the essential condition for maximising the total utility which the total income available could confer on the members of that community.” Assumptions to test: I. If extra income were taken from the rich and given to the poor, the total utility experienced by the community would increase. II. Equal pay for equal work.

Introduction / Context:
This question evaluates your understanding of implicit assumptions in economic statements about utility and income distribution. The statement claims that perfectly equal income maximizes total utility across a community. We must identify which hidden beliefs must be true for that claim to hold meaningfully.

Given Data / Assumptions:

• Main claim: equality of income is essential for maximizing total utility.
• Assumption I: transferring income from richer to poorer increases aggregate utility.
• Assumption II: equal pay for equal work (a labor-compensation norm unrelated to total utility per se).

Concept / Approach:
Economic utility arguments typically rely on diminishing marginal utility of income: each extra unit of income yields less satisfaction as income rises. Therefore, redistribution from high-income to low-income individuals can raise the sum of utilities. We check each assumption for necessity to the claim about maximizing total utility via equality.

Step-by-Step Solution:

Verification / Alternative check:
Negate I: if transferring from rich to poor did not increase total utility, then full equality would not be utility-maximizing. The original claim collapses. Negate II: the utility claim remains intact without discussing pay norms, so II is not necessary.

Why Other Options Are Wrong:

• Only II / Either / Neither / Both: These either inject an unrelated fairness norm or deny the key diminishing-marginal-utility premise.

Common Pitfalls:
Conflating ethical fairness rules (equal pay) with utility-maximization arguments. The former is normative about work; the latter is consequentialist about welfare totals.

Final Answer:
Only assumption I is implicit