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, 2000-2025. [Accessed: January 20, 2025].

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Illegal and unreported market transactions and productive activity that escape the watchful eyes of official record keepers. By most estimates, a substantial amount of productive activity takes place in the underground economy of the United States. Of course, these are only estimates because such activity, by definition, goes unreported. If activity in the underground economy is added to official activity in the "overground" economy, then gross domestic product could be boosted by as much as 25 percent to 50 percent, or more. Inclusion of employment in the underground economy is also likely reduce the official unemployment rate by a few percentage points.

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Today, you are likely to spend a great deal of time wandering around the downtown area looking to buy either handcrafted decorations to hang on your walls or throw pillows for your bed. Be on the lookout for high interest rates.
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