The purpose of this study is to establish a formula which could be considered, in some of its aspects at least, as expressing the losses resulting from the defects of an economic situation as compared with a given optimal situation (taken as reference). Use is made of the amount by which the sum of individual incomes in the second situation could be increased so that all satisfactions are made equal to their values in the first situation. The expression arrived at has a definite sign and is null for the reference situation, minimum (under certain constraints) for an optimal situation.