Question

The following letter to the Amy Alkon, Advice Goddess, appeared in the Morning Call on Friday, January 1, 2016:

Q: I’ve been in a long-distance relationship with my dream man. When we aren’t together, I feel super-disconnected and needy. I’ve never been that sort of person, but he is a master of compartmentalization and just calls or texts back when I contact him and is happy to see me when he sees me. This just isn’t working for me. I’ve asked him repeatedly to even just text me first from time to time so I can feel like I matter to him. However, nothing changes. I now think I should end it. I do love him, though, and my friends are telling me that I’ve already invested nine months of my life in this relationship and I might as well see it through now. – Across the Country.

What advice would you give? (This is from an economic class)

Answer 1

Whether you want to end your relationship or continue with your relationship depends upon your trade-offs and opportunity cost. You first need to figure out what are the positive outcomes and negative outcomes of staying in that relationship.

A trade-off is a compromise made when you have to give up something in return for getting something else. Here, you should consider both the compromises you need to make when you would stay in that relationship and when you will end it. Where would your compromise be higher?

Opportunity cost is the cost of losing other alternatives when one alternative is chosen. Where do you think your opportunity cost is higher? Whenever you make a trade-off between two decisions, the decision which you do not choose becomes your opportunity cost.

Hence, considering the trade-offs and opportunity costs, the one which you feel has a lower opportunity cost should be the decision you should choose.