Lyft Drivers Are Perfect

“Opportunity Cost”

This article talks about why Lyft drivers understand opportunity costs. The author of the article talked about a conversation he had with his Lyft driver. The Lyft driver explained that she was sitting at home watching Netflix when it hit her that she could be out making money by giving rides. She went on to say how working any time you please has taught her that time you spend at home not doing anything costs you money. Forgoing TV time isn’t the only thing drivers miss out on either. In order for drivers to make money good money, they must spent long hours out driving. This is time away from home and their families. The author explains how understanding this concept can considerably improve your life, and people who don’t get this concept suffer. One thing that hinders you from seeing and understanding opportunity cost it is a scheduled work regiment. By working a nine to five Monday through Friday, and in turn off on Saturday and Sunday can blind you from the cost of sleeping in late on Saturdays. You may also miss the cost of partying all night on Sunday, thinking there are no cost to what you are doing because you don’t have to be at work till Monday. Just because there are no monetary cost doesn’t mean there are no cost at all to you. Ride share drivers understand this, because every moment they aren’t driving they aren’t making money. They consider the cost of the things they do. For instance going out drinking they know if they drink too much they won’t be sober for another seven or eight hours so they might not drink that night. Over all the chances of making better decisions go up for them because they consider these things. Lyft drivers tend to be less lazy, less likely to abuse substances, and less self-indulgent.

The book defines opportunity cost as the amount of other products that must be forgone or sacrificed to produce a unit of a product. On page nine, in the “consider this” section, they use the example of Bill Gates, Oprah Whinfrey, and Alex Rodriguez. All three of these people didn’t go to college. It is said that people who don’t go to college make fifty percent less than college graduates in their life time. So, what were they thinking by not going to college? Bill Gates decided that dropping out of college to start his company would be less costly than staying in school. Oprah dropped out of college as well to start working at a local news station. Alex Rodriguez knew that athletes have relatively short careers so jumping straight to the pros was a better trade off than going to college. All situations worked out handsomely.

Reading both the article and the book I think it’s safe to say that the principle of opportunity cost is real and applicable to real life. Both the book and article complement each other well. They show that the choices you make do come with a price and that law is everywhere you look in life.