Opportunity Cost

This boils down to the question, "What will this cost me in terms of not-money?"

Sounds confusing and it is at first.

In mommy terms, I can feed my tot candy and shut them up for 15 minutes after lunch so I can do the dishes. Candy for short term peace. But candy will also cost me, in terms of cavities and the child's expectations. And behavior issues from the high fructosity. No dessert will take away those expectation but also take away some of my time to do dishes and some of my 'nice mommy' points. Fruit is a good compromise...

Anyways, I digress. There's only so much of any one resource. Take labor. There are only so many laborers in the country. If the US shut down all industry but automaking, there would be no one in the country to make food and prices of that commodity would increase (even more so than they do.) If people only labored in food production, there would be no one to educate our children. A teacher cannot teach and produce food at the same time (or devote their full resources.) Or they can produce food well but only if they give up some of their teaching time. An acre of corn will cost a teacher 3 hours of class time. When discussing opportunity cost, do not get bogged down with details such as multitasking and monetary issues. Look at it as an exchange of goods.

Translated into pure cash perspective, though, its having $10 to spend on anything you want. You could get 3 Starbucks drinks or 4 McDonald's coffee drinks. You could get 2 gallons of gas. You could buy an hour of babysitting. But you cannot buy all of the above with just $10. That resource is limited.

Translated into time, you have an hour without children. You can do laundry and dusting, you can catch up on TV you've been recording, you can read that novel you haven't been able to finish, you can take a hot bath, you can nap... bu you cannot do it all... spring cleaning may cost you a nap. Or a nap will cost you dusting 3 rooms.



Agrarian countries are having trouble with this at present. At one time they mainly grew and sold food. But with populations and high paying jobs moving to cities (think China) there are fewer workers available to produce food. This creates a shortage of food in the country, overall. More educated workers are costing the nation in skilled farmers. This is directly affecting their need to import foodstuffs and export goods and services that other countries need.

I think stay at home moms have a better grasp of opportunity cost than most. Staying at home, you get time with your kids when they're little, something you can never recover. But you lose points, professionally, and you gain gaps in your resume. However, you also have less stress from having to 'do it all' because you discover thats just a myth anyways:) Even moms who work from home, like me, can point to their opportunity costs. I can make a pair of baby booties for $15 or I can take an hour and a half nap or clean my house or surf the 'net. But those activities will cost me the pair of booties and the profit from them. Anyone else have examples of this from their lives?