The truth is though that we use utilitarian thinking ALL the time to make decisions. On a small scale, in our individual lives: I decide to spend money on school because it means that afterwards I'll get a better job. We use it on a political scale as well: we're building a new interstate and we have the choice to choose a route that will require one home to be demolished or ten to be demolished. We'll choose the one, all things being equal. This, really, is the very basic and innate way that humans make daily decisions. But still it can't exist on its own. There are value choices being made. In the personal example I am putting value on money over time, perhaps. In the second, is maybe a pure utilitarian example, actually. but when do these ever exist? A more likely scenario: do we demolish one historic home or ten tacky plastic-plywood homes? There we have to base our judgement of utility on some standard of WHAT is in fact better overall for society?
So UT. is good, but it can't stand on it's own.
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