Opportinity Cost is the name given to the cost of something in terms of an opportunity forgone and the benefits that could be received from that opportunity, or the most valuable forgone alternative. Eg; If a city decides to build a hospital on vacant land that it owns, the opportunity cost is some other thing that might have been done with the land instead. In building the hospital, the city has forgone the opportunity to build a kickass cinema on that land, or a car park, or the ability to sell the land, and so on.

Its a simple and valuable notion which I was taught in the first lesson of Economics some decade back. Back then I thought to myself, well whopeee-doo, its common bloody sense. Obviously if you buy a chocolate bar with the only 50p you have then you can't buy crisps (unless the chocolate was 40p & you bought Space Invaders which were 10p -- the Spicy Tomato flavour ones were better & usually ran out, so there were occasions where Pickled Onion had to suffice).

So, what's the big deal?, why even bother giving such an idea a name. Looking back I still don't see why it has a name, but I can appreciate that sometimes the most obvious is better stated than not stated, I guess having a name helps. Looking at some of these Self-Help courses that workplaces ocassionally send you on, they tell you all these things that you blatantly knew, they seem rather silly when seen this way, but they motivate you, they remind you the things that you're capable of, remind you that you have options beyond the come and go routine that you now drone in and out of each day & that feeling of knowing is worth it (for the time lost, because it wasn't spent at work which it would have been otherwise).

In honesty, I still find such courses pretty lame. It's much more of an impact when it comes in the form of entertainment, like books and films and sometimes the people around you. (The recent Guru is a good example). Anyway, focussing on the said and unsaid 'obvious', something else that comes forward to me as obvious is that whether they admit it or not, people have a knack for being self-centred, their initial look at issues, processes, situations, its simply contrived by their perspective holds on it. Those that look beyond and try and emulate situations which cover angles beyond this are rare. Those that try and cover every possible angle even more so.

Is this a bad thing? Not really. If everybody fell into this sector of incapability, we can agree that would be absolutely terrible, but if everybody went the other way, then too there would be havoc, as too much time would be wasted and too many smaller yet significant matters would not be attended to, so we find that some kind of natural balance holds here, which is handy (& helps one feel better about themselves when they find they actually do this).

I myself, find it necessary to pick & note the capable of the bunch and learn from them. For when they state the obvious, it isn't necessarily as obvious to you, and this 'learning' is what I consider progress of soul, personality, my inner self. So, pursuing this ongoing goal of bettering myself, Do I lose out as well as gain? Ofcourse I do. I lose time, I lose morals, I lose the respect of many others, I lose some people entirely (sometimes people I haven't got to know, some I've known a long while).

I look back at the things I have gained and lost over the last few years, in many cases, it doesn't bother me, in some cases it does, especially when the investment is a precious one like time or people, but that my friends is my opportunity cost. A way of life, a way that you can realise what it has cost you to gain what you have & re-iterate for the future what you consider a worthy opportunity cost.

Silent Salutes'