utility function always negative In a problem set, I found a strange utility function: $U(c)=-1/2(c^* - c)^2$, where $c^* =$ positive constant level of consumption. Does this function have economic sense?
Remember that utility function only matters ordinally... that is, you only care if $u(A) &gt; u(B)$, and $u(A) = 100$ with $u(B) = 10$ is the same thing as $u(A) = -1000$ and $u(B) = -1000.0001$ (both have $u(A) &gt; u(B)$.)