Politicians and Opportunity Costs

Some people say that the principle of opportunity costs is the only principle worth remembering from economics. The opportunity cost is the value of the best foregone alternative, it is the situation that is given up when we make a choice. If I need to choose between using my evening to do homework or write a blog or watch a movie, and doing homework seems best and the blog seems second best, then I will choose to do homework and give up writing a blog, making the blog the opportunity cost of doing homework; the movie doesn't tie in since it is neither my first nor second choice (I am actually rotating between homework and blog and my opportunity cost is giving full time to either one).

We minimize our opportunity costs by taking the best opportunity possible; inevitable we always miss opportunities, but by taking advantage of the best option, we minimize the opportunities that we lose.

We do this on our own without realizing it, and without forceful government help. Of course we choose the option that seems to bring us the greatest benefit with the lowest cost. This is part of why I think the government should be small, and does not need to decide whether people should be welders or philosophers, for example.

Sometimes mentioning opportunity costs is painful because of our tendency to want to have everything and give up nothing.

Rand Paul asked Marco Rubio about how his pro-family tax plan creates a trillion dollar deficit. Rather than saying something like "Well, I think it is worth that cost," Rubio changed topics and called Paul an isolationist.

This is also why I have rarely heard of any costs whatsoever to having a large government or debt during democratic debates. One response that I heard from a candidate when asked about the opportunity cost of a certain liberal policy was "you sound like a republican!" rather than talking about opportunity costs.

Don't get me wrong, more and more I am feeling that we have good candidates who obviously know more about politics work better than me and won't change much in our inspired constitutional system. Perhaps congress is who we should expect to rein in spending. Also, I will quite possibly vote for Rubio, but anyway, I think it is good for voters to think about opportunity costs.