In all our lives we must make choices. You make choices from the time you get out of bed in the morning until you go to sleep at night. What time to get up? What to wear? What to eat? You also make more significant choices when you graduate from high school. College? Technical training?
No matter the size of the decision, the common thread in all of them is that they involve an opportunity cost. Opportunity cost is your next best alternative – your second choice. For example, it's a Saturday night, and you are trying to decide between going to the movies, hanging out at friend's house or going to the football game.What is your second choice? If it is the football game, then that is your opportunity cost.
Opportunity cost is important. When you make a certain choice, it forces you to think more critically about all of the abandoned choices. By recognizing opportunity cost, you can decide whether your decision is worth it.
As a high school senior, you face several options, including going to college, going to technical school, or going to the work force. If you choose college the opportunity cost is losing what could have been purchased or saved with the money spent on tuition (学费), housing, books, etc. for four years.You would also lose four years' worth of income and experience that you could have earned if you had gone straight to work.
However, it is still the case that college graduates earn more than high school graduates.But, like all decisions, it is one that should be arrived at only after looking at the costs — including the opportunity cost — and considering the follow-up question: is it worth it?
A. Will you go straight to work?
B. What causes opportunity cost?
C. But that's not the end of the costs.
D. Suppose you decide to go to the movies.
E. If you give up college, what do you lose?
F. A perfect example is the decision to go to college.
G. For many students, going on to college is a wise decision.
