Title: Getting the Most Out of Life: The Concept of Opportunity Cost - Econlib
Headings: Getting the Most Out of Life: The Concept of Opportunity Cost
Getting the Most Out of Life: The Concept of Opportunity Cost
The real cost of college
The return on your investments
Home ownership and home improvements
Sunk costs are sunk, historical costs are history
Self-sufficiency vs. relying on others

Content: Still not free. The cost of having lunch with me, even when I pay, even when you don’t plan on reciprocating and even when I do all the talking that you ignore, is the pleasure you would have received doing something else instead. Whatever you gave up to have lunch with me. Not just the money. Not just the time. But the value or pleasure you would have received from doing something else. So one of the keys to thinking like an economist is always remembering that everything has a cost. This may be one reason economists have fewer friends than they otherwise would. Sometimes people are very happy holding on to the naïve view that something is free. We like the idea of a bargain.