With limited resources, households, business firms and governments must make choices. If I have a fixed amount of money and I’m choosing between a monthly payment on a luxury sedan or a less expensive but more mundane sedan, I might forgo the big TV set and go with the higher payments on the luxury sedan. Part of the cost of the luxury sedan is the foregone benefit of the TV set. Economists see these so-called “opportunity costs” all over the place and we delight in our ability to do that. It is what makes us special …
… but not so huggable. Finding these costs is what gets us into so much trouble with environmentalists. Environmentalists tend to see only the good, what economists call benefits, in environmental policies. Environmental economists see the good and the bad (i.e., the costs). Since environmental economists and environmentalists essentially agree on the good stuff (but, see below), the only thing left to discuss is the costs. We bring up the costs and environmentalists seem to go ballistic about how evil we are (even when we explicitly state that there are enormous benefits to certain environmental policies).
… but not so huggable. Finding these costs is what gets us into so much trouble with environmentalists. Environmentalists tend to see only the good, what economists call benefits, in environmental policies. Environmental economists see the good and the bad (i.e., the costs). Since environmental economists and environmentalists essentially agree on the good stuff (but, see below), the only thing left to discuss is the costs. We bring up the costs and environmentalists seem to go ballistic about how evil we are (even when we explicitly state that there are enormous benefits to certain environmental policies).
Yes, that does sound familiar. We are the people that often just have to open the cold showers.
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