People face tradeoffs

The first lesson about making decisions is summarized in the adage，“there is no such thing as a free lunch.”To get one thing that we like，we usually have to give up another thing that we like.Making decisions requires trading off one goal against another．

Consider a student who must decide how to allocate her most valuable resource—her time.She can spend all of her time studying economics; she can spend all of her time studying psychology; or she can divide her time between the two fields.For every hour she studies one subject，she gives up an hour that she could have spent napping，bike riding，watching TV，working at her part-time job for some extra spending money．

When people are grouped into societies，they face different kinds of tradeoffs．

The classic tradeoff is between“guns and butter.”The more we spend on national defense to protect our shores from foreign aggressors ( guns) ，the less we can spend on consumer goods to raise our standard of living at home ( butter) .Also important in modern society is the tradeoff between a clean environment and a high level of income.Laws that require firms to reduce pollution raise the cost of producing goods and services.Because of the higher costs，these firms end up earing smaller profits，paying lower wages，charging higher prices，or some combination of these three．

Thus，while pollution regulations give us the benefit of a cleaner environment and the improved health that comes with it，they have the cost of reducing the incomes of the firms'owners，workers，and customers．

Another tradeoff society faces is between efficiency and equity.Efficiency means that society is getting the most it can from its scarce resources.Equity means that the benefits of those resources are distributed fairly among society's members.In other words，efficiency refers to the size of the economic pie，and equity refers to how the pie is divided.Often，when government policies are being designed，these two goals conflict．

Recognizing that people face tradeoffs does not by itself tell us what decisions we will or should make.A student should not abandon the study of psychology just because doing so would increase the time available for the study of economics.Society should not stop protecting the environment just because environmental regulations reduces our material standard of living.The poor should not be ignored just because helping them distorts work incentives.Nonetheless，acknowledging life's tradeoffs is important because people are likely to make good decisions only if they understand the options that have available．

人們面臨權(quán)衡取舍關(guān)系

關(guān)于作出決策的第一課可以歸納為一句諺語: “天下沒有免費的午餐”。為了得到我們喜愛的一件東西，通常就不得不放棄另一件我們喜愛的東西。作出一個決策，要求我們權(quán)衡取舍，即在一個目標(biāo)與另一個目標(biāo)之間有所取舍?？紤]一下一個學(xué)生如何決定配置她最寶貴的資源——時間。她可以把所有的時間用于學(xué)習(xí)經(jīng)濟學(xué); 可以把所有的時間用來學(xué)習(xí)心理學(xué); 也可以把時間適當(dāng)分配在這兩個學(xué)科上。她把某一個小時用于學(xué)習(xí)一門課時，她就必須放棄本來可以學(xué)習(xí)另一門課的一個小時。而且，對于她用于學(xué)習(xí)一門課的每一個小時，她要放棄本來可以用于睡眠、騎車、看電視或打工賺點零花錢的時間。

當(dāng)人們組成社會時，他們面臨各種不同的權(quán)衡關(guān)系。典型的就是“大炮與黃油”之間的權(quán)衡。我們把更多的錢用于國防以保衛(wèi)我們的海岸免受外國的入侵( 大炮) 時，我們能用于提高國內(nèi)生活水平的個人物品的消費( 黃油) 就少了。

在現(xiàn)代社會里，同樣重要的是清潔的環(huán)境和高收入水平之間的權(quán)衡關(guān)系。要求企業(yè)減少污染的法律增加了生產(chǎn)物品與勞務(wù)的成本。由于成本高，結(jié)果這些企業(yè)賺的利潤少了，支付的工資低了，收取的價格高了，或者是這三種結(jié)果的某種結(jié)合，因此盡管污染管制給予我們的好處是更清潔的環(huán)境以及由此引起的健

康的改善，但其代價是企業(yè)所有者、工人和消費者的收入減少。

社會面臨的另一種權(quán)衡關(guān)系是效率與平等之間的權(quán)衡。效率是指社會能從其稀缺資源中得到最多的東西。平等是指這些資源的成果公平地分配給社會成員。換句話說，效率是指經(jīng)濟蛋糕的大小，而平等是指如何分割這塊蛋糕，在設(shè)計政府政策的時候，這兩個目標(biāo)往往是不一致的。

認(rèn)識到人們面臨權(quán)衡關(guān)系本身并沒有告訴我們，人們將會或應(yīng)該作出什么決策。一個學(xué)生不應(yīng)該僅僅由于要增加用于學(xué)習(xí)經(jīng)濟學(xué)的時間而放棄心理學(xué)的學(xué)習(xí)，社會不應(yīng)該僅僅由于環(huán)境控制降低了我們的物質(zhì)水平而不再保護(hù)環(huán)境，也不應(yīng)該僅僅由于幫助窮人扭曲了工作激勵機制而忽視了他們。然而，認(rèn)識到生活中的權(quán)衡關(guān)系是重要的，因為人們只有了解了他們可以得到的選擇，才能作出良好的決策。