OPPORTUNITY COST

Post # 61

Opportunity cost is that which you give up for making the best alternative decision. The Europeans have restricted the investment and production of gas and oil for fear of global warming. The opportunity cost of these decisions are the things they could have had if they had chosen differently. One thing they have given up is the availability and the low price of energy, including the fuel it takes to heat their homes in the winter. Consequently, Viktor Orban, the president of Hungary, has called upon the European Union to withdraw its policies to tackle climate change to prevent an energy catastrophe this winter. Not only will energy be a rare commodity, but much of Europe is dependent on Russian for its energy. Orban has stated that “Energy bills have been spiking for customers across Europe because of bad decisions made by “bureaucrats in Brussels,” who are fighting for ecology by continuously raising the price of energy generated from coal and gas.”

According to Orban, the problematic situation on the energy market would top the agenda at the next EU summit, with Budapest, Warsaw, and Prague presenting a unified front at the meeting and offer their solutions to the crisis. Orban again blasted the European Union, the climate policy chief, pushing hard for the European Union to cut net greenhouse gas emissions by at least 55% by 2030. The policy chief recently warned that the rising emissions from Europe’s transport sector might prevent the bloc from achieving its climate control goal.

Passing environmental laws may be suitable for mother earth, but we should do a cost-benefit analysis with each decision. In other words, what are the opportunity costs of making this and those decisions? The same is true with our present-day Covid-19 lock-downs and other restrictions. Lock-downs, especially those in Canada and Australia, come with substantial opportunity costs. And what are those costs? High inflation, high unemployment, the loss of personal liberty, and riots in the streets.

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Published by Kenneth E. Long

Author, college professor of economics, swimming and tennis enthusiast

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