Recently I took part in a debate between theatre professionals about what political ideology was best suited for theatre: (left) liberalism or (right) conservatism. Neither has worked all that well in the real world, I pointed out, so why would they work in the world of theatre?
I’m looking for a complete and comprehensive definition of ‘opportunity cost’. Ideally, it could serve as a universal application guide for the concept.
I don’t expect that a single reference could be found to satisfy this requirement, but several in combination might, and supplementary and explanatary footnotes could help.
This, the best of which I am aware, which isn’t many, follows below.
The following quotes concerning opportunity cost come from a non-Austrian mainstream economics text.
Athanasios Orphanides’ recent Fed paper touches on aspects of Japan’s extended economic slump (his basic thesis: the BOJ should have done more). This paper served as a reminder of the inadequacies and limitations of mainstream analysis in explaining Japan’s long economic winter. Fortunately, though long unrecognized and unappreciated by the mainstream, there is a good framework for understanding the Japanese boom and bust.
We all know people who for years have been taking the buns off burgers, but now we have the commercial response to low-carb mania to remind us how closely this highly competitive industry watches consumer eating patterns: “Making Low-Carb Concessions, Restaurants Respond To Popular Diet Trend.” It seems like a trend a central planner would be likely to miss--or perhaps a hard-core socialist would say that everyone should just eat the way the government proscribes.
The EPA is proposing to take Love Canal off its Superfund cleanup list. That has led some to blow Superfund’s horn and get in one more shot at “evil” business polluters.
In his “State of the State” speech to the California legislature in 2001, then-Governor Gray Davis demanded that lawmakers there make “withholding of electricity” a criminal offense. At the time, California was in the throes of an electricity crisis, made so by its own policies, but Davis, along with Paul Krugman and others chose to blame producers of electricity.The California electricity fiasco has been well-documented in the press, and on this page as well.
In Iraq, the US has followed a pattern of carrots and sticks for the better part of twelve months. Build a police station, shoot a political dissident, repair a school, shut down a newspaper, fund a hospital, arrest a cleric, shell out millions to buy off political support, mow down a few families at checkpoints in civilian areas. This can’t work, and Mises explains why. [MORE]
Bad economics and an overextended empire contributed to creating conditions that led to disaster, writes H.A. Scott Trask.
