People have different ideas about what perfection is. This means what is perfect for one person might not make someone else happy. If these two people were put into the same society, that society could not be a utopia because one of them would not be happy. In Huxley's Brave New World, this problem was avoided through the application of hypnopaedics, a form of hypnosis in which concepts were repeated countless times to people while they were sleeping as children. This "conditioning" gave them the same values as each other. In rare cases however, this conditioning was not completely effective or wore off after a time.

An example of how a society may not be right for everyone is the film commonly used for teaching economics, The Milagro Beanfield War. In this movie, which was written by John Nichols, a small traditional farming town is threatened by the desire of a rich businessman to build a resort where they live. Trouble erupts because the locals resent his idea and fight back. They do not want a resort, and they do not want to leave their homes.

While the businessman thinks that a swanky resort would be perfect, and wealthy tourists would likely agree, the locals think otherwise. They like their small town the way it is and are happy in it. Neither of the opinions was necessarily wrong, but everyone could not be happy regardless of the outcome.