COST: Best referred to as opportunity cost, this is the highest valued alternative foregone in the pursuit of an activity. This is a hallmark of anything dealing with economics -- or life for that matter -- because any action that you take prevents you from doing something else. The value expressed in terms of satisfaction of the foregone activity is your opportunity cost. Because there are usually several alternatives that aren't pursued, opportunity cost is the highest-valued one. An opportunity cost is sometimes compensated with some form of payment, like a wage. However, the existence of an opportunity cost is independent of any actual cash outlay.

     See also | opportunity cost | economic cost | economics | value | satisfaction | explicit cost | implicit cost | accounting cost |

COST, AmosWEB GLOSS*arama, http://www.AmosWEB.com, AmosWEB LLC, 2000-2018. [Accessed: April 25, 2018].

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Goods characterized by rival consumption and the inability to exclude nonpayers. Common-property goods are one of four types of goods differentiated by consumption rivalry and nonpayer excludability. The other three goods are private (rival consumption and nonpayers can be excluded), public (nonrival consumption and nonpayers cannot be excluded), and near-public (nonrival consumption and nonpayers can be excluded). Nonrival consumption and the ease of excluding of nonpayers means common-property goods cannot be efficiently exchanged through markets and are often overconsumed.

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