Making a Decision
Lexie Perry (77515113) Thursday at 8 pm
In the introduction of my first microeconomics class, my professor said, “There is no free lunch,” meaning that there will always be a cost to our actions even if it is not monetary or readily apparent. The phrase stuck with me, especially in making decisions in my everyday life. This phrase applies to decisions that are both small, like whether I should order a salad or a cheeseburger at a restaurant, and ones that also carry a lot of weight. For instance, a recent decision I made greatly impacted my family’s life and mine. I had an accident in which I injured my hand and was told I needed surgery. Before I made my decision, I was informed that there was a 50/50 chance I could lose mobility in my dominant hand forever. I had to make the decision to operate on it now and risk losing my ability to use my dominant hand or hold off and risk losing my hand entirely months down the line. I also had to take into consideration how this would impact my family. The recovery process would not be easy, and I ran the risk of infection because of the size and location of the surgical site. I would have to lean heavily on my family during the weeks following my surgery, not being able to wash a dish or even button up a pair of pants. This is an example of a negative externality in which my family (the third party) incurs the cost of my deciding to have the surgery. I also had to take into consideration how this would impact my academic career. I enrolled in five courses this quarter, which is above the average course-load. I knew I had to do well because the majority of them were prerequisites for an academic program I applied to. I also had the incentive to do well because there were additional monetary costs in taking extra classes. When I learned I had to have surgery, I knew I had the option of taking time off, receiving Incompletes in my courses, and returning to finish them at a later date. If I decided to have the surgery and continue my courses, I could foresee my recovery negatively impacting my academic performance. This is an example of a sunk cost because I would be following through in my education because I had already put so much money, effort, and time into it. In doing so, I would not be getting as much out of my investment and would be risking setbacks in my recovery with completing written assignments. Thus, the costs would outweigh the benefits. When it came time to make a decision, I weighed the opportunity costs of having surgery, or the benefit that I would receive by not going through with it. If I chose to delay my surgery until the summer, I would have the benefit of not having to take time off from work or school. I would not risk falling behind in my course-work and have to ask for extensions and accommodations. In addition, my family would not have to adjust parts of their lifestyle to accommodate me. In other words, I could continue on as usual. However, that came with the trade-off that I could potentially lose my hand in the future. If this risk came to be a reality, I would be worse off than if I had just gotten the surgery then and there. Ultimately, I made the decision to have the surgery on my hand. While it did impact my schooling to some degree, especially when the risks of infection came to be a reality and caused further complications, I believe I made the right decision, and I did so by applying the economic principles I learned.
