Question

One of the lessons of economics is that "there is no such thing as a free lunch." This means that businesses, consumers, and whole societies face tradeoffs whenever they make a decision. Please draw on your own experiences to discuss the following 3 items. Make sure you use economic concepts in your main contribution.

1. Explain a decision that you have made at work, or one concerning your career, or any major life decision that you have made.
2. Identify and explain the trade-offs that you faced.
3. List the alternatives you had, identify the highest valued alternative, and explain your final decision to the class.

Answer 1

For this week’s discussion board assignment I have decided to discuss the major life choice of having children. At the age of 15 I was sadly informed that I would never be able to have children due to the medical disease, endometriosis. To my surprise six years later I was pregnant with my first child. At the time I was only twenty-one years old and discovering that I was going to be a mother was a gigantic shock and equally a scary thought. For the first couple months of my pregnancy I debated on not keeping the baby or putting the baby up for adoption at birth. In the end I finally decided to keep the baby and it was truly the best decision of my life. I now have three beautiful children, one boy and two girls, and I cherish every moment of each day I have with them.

When a woman decided to become pregnant or ends up being pregnant, there are many trade-offs that must be considered. In my case, I ended up being a single mother to my babies but I had to sacrifice several personal “wants” in order to care for my kids. Some of the trade-offs include being able to do whatever I wanted, having to leave work, a major decline in my personal life, and devoting every day to the care of my children.

As aforementioned, the alternatives that were available to me was to give birth to my son, get an abortion, or to give him up for adoption at birth. My final choice was to keep him and raise him like a mother is supposed to do. I can honestly say that even after having all three of my kids I have never once regretted my decision to become the mother I am today. Having a child is truly one of the greatest joys in a person’s life even with everything that has to be sacrificed along the way.