Question 1
Recall a time where you were making a decision that involved considering both monetary and non-monetary benefits and costs. What were the monetary and non-monetary considerations? How did you ultimately decide on what to do?
Student 1
A time I had to consider both monetary and non-monetary benefits is when classes restart for the semester deciding how many hours to continue working at my job. I can either choose to keep working as many hours as possible and make more money or I can choose to cut back on hours so that I would have more time to focus on school. Ultimately, I have chosen to cut back working to insure I have plenty of time to study and complete my course load with good grades and cut back on my spending habits.
Student 2
Two years ago, I made a huge decision to follow my calling and start up my own business giving private softball lessons while only being a freshman at the time. I had to make the decision of whether I wanted to take a huge risk to start up my business and juggle the challenge of school at the same time or to let this dream pass me by. The monetary benefit was starting up a successful business but the non-monetary benefit is the lack of freedom/ social life while maintaining good grades in school and running a successful business.
Question 2
Time is a scarce resource, and how you spend your time requires evaluating tradeoffs. Describe an example from your own experience where a decision about how to spend your time brought with it an opportunity cost. What was the opportunity cost?
Student 1
Over the break, I felt like I needed to hangout with my friends I hadn’t seen in a long time but make sure I keep working on baseball and stay with family time. My high school friends hung out a lot over the break. However, I would go and workout and practice baseball instead of hangout with them. The opportunity cost was hanging out with my friends I hadn’t seen in awhile. It also cost me gas money as I had to drive a little bit further than if I was going to my friends house. It is all good though, because in the end, I got to catch up and eat lunch with my friends before we all left.
Student 2
Time can be wasted, but it can’t be gained back. I have wasted plenty of time in my life that I wish I could have back for just one day. I usually have to study and do homework a lot since I’ve been in high school. I wanted to continually do homework and study for my classes during my first semester of college that I didn’t get out a lot on campus or go out to meet new people or try new things. I regret that a lot, but I did make A’s and B’s my first semester. The opportunity cost of the situation would be not meeting new people and trying new things in the long run.
Question 3
The coronavirus pandemic has had a dramatic impact on the economy over the last 20 months. Provide an example of a product market that has seen demand increase as a result of this shock and a product market that has seen demand decrease as a result of this shock. Explain why demand is changing in these markets.
Student 1
I used to work at Target so I got to see first hand which products where in demand and were not, and the product with the most demand increase that I had seen was in the toilet paper market, toilet paper was so in demand we had to set limits on people buying the product, also hand sanitizer, we would sell thousands of bottles of hand sanitizer a week. The product market I saw lose demand was the travel items market, anything from little shampoo bottles to luggage would stay on shelves for months at times, no one was traveling due the rising pandemic so the products being used to travel with where rarely purchased.
Student 2
I would say a product market that has seen the most demand since covid started has been the PPE (personal protective equipment) market. This includes all of the masks and gloves and etc. I would also say hand sanitizer has been in very high demand as well.
I would say anything that requires people to come out of their house and use things that other people have used has lowered in demand. The biggest one that is clear to me is gym memberships. I go tot the gym a lot and ever since coronavirus the gym has never been the same. They still have customers, but not like before.
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Question 1: Recall a moment when you had to make a decision that required you to consider both monetary and non-monetary rewards and costs. What were the financial and non-financial considerations? How did you finally determine what to do?
Student No. 1
When courses resumed for the semester, I had to evaluate both monetary and non-monetary rewards when deciding how many hours to continue working at my job. I have the option of continuing to work as many hours as possible in order to earn more money, or I can reduce my hours in order to devote more time to schoolwork. Finally, I decided to reduce my work hours to ensure that I have enough time to study and complete my course load.
