Marginalism in School
In school, students make tons of choices everyday. A lot of these choices happen during students' lunch hours, specifically, in the cafeteria. Here are four examples of what (many times) occurs in the cafeteria.
Student A goes to lunch and decided to buy two unhealthy snacks from the A La Carte Line instead of one full lunch to save money. If the lunch is $3.40 and the two snacks are a dollar each, the student's saves $1.40 and is able to save the extra money for another day. However, the student sacrifices a healthy lunch for unhealthy snacks, which will lead to a sugar high, and subsequently, a sugar crash. In order to save money on lunch, the student must sacrifice their health. Student A chooses to buy cheaper snacks instead of a healthy lunch, which shows opportunity cost.
Student B goes to the regular lunch line and buys a regular lunch for $3.40 instead of buying two cheap, unhealthy snacks for a dollar each. The student loses an extra $1.40 in an effort to buy a healthier, more filling lunch. Student B spends more money and sacrifices extra money in order to have a healthier lunch. The student chooses to buy a full, healthy lunch instead of a cheap snacks, which shows opportunity cost.
Student C takes an AP science course and only has half a lunch period, but has a pass that lets them cut through the lunch lines faster. Student C chooses to have half a lunch period and takes a tougher course, but spends less time in lunch lines and gets college credit, which shows opportunity cost.
In summary, these are just four examples, and with countless other variables in the equation, it's not surprising that students have to make numerous choices everyday.
I agree with Mona about the fact that even as students we use marginalism. This just goes to show how ever single person uses economics in their everyday lives even though they may not even realize it's economics. Mona showed that as students we use marginalism everyday, but marginalism can also be shown in business. An example of how marginilism can be used in business is if a business decided to put a billboard up to advertise, they believe that the marginal cost(the cost advertising and the energy spent doing it) is outweighed by the marginal benifits(the revenue from the new customers the bullboard brought in).
ReplyDeleteI agree with you, I really like how you gave so many examples, it helps to see all of different ways students use opportunity cost. Also, students use opportunity cost when picking if they want to go off campus or not. Going off might mean that why would spend a little bit more money but they might value better food or more food options over money.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Mona. Many students use Marginalism through out their days with out even knowing it. They don't stop to think "Oh this is Marginalism." They think of it in simpler terms. "What do I gain from this?" In this Scenario, Mona shows four students and how each of them use Marginalism as they weigh their costs and benefits in the cafeteria. I can relate to this because I do the same in the cafeteria deciding what I want to eat and how long the lines are. I am like Student C. Some students value one thing more than another. That shows opportunity cost.
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