The government wants to make medicare benefits available to more people, but to achieve this goal, it needs to make cuts in the existing medicare budget. the two areas where they are considering cuts are nonessential elective surgery and 6-12 month mental health care programs. applying the concept of diminishing marginal utility, the budget cuts should be made for spending on: a. elective surgery due to its lower marginal utility per dollar of expenditure. b. neither can be compared by measuring marginal utility. c. mental health therapy due to its higher marginal utility per dollar of expenditure. d. both programs, which have the same marginal utility per dollar of expenditure.

Bandar industries berhad of malaysia manufactures sporting equipment. one of the company’s products, a football helmet for the north american market, requires a special plastic. during the quarter ending june 30, the company manufactured 35,000 helmets, using 22,500 kilograms of plastic. the plastic cost the company $171,000. according to the standard cost card, each helmet should require 0.6 kilograms of plastic, at a cost of $8 per kilogram. 1. what is the standard quantity of kilograms of plastic (sq) that is allowed to make 35,000 helmets? 2. what is the standard materials cost allowed (sq x sp) to make 35,000 helmets? 3. what is the materials spending variance? 4. what is the materials price variance and the materials quantity variance?