OPPORTUNITY COST: The highest valued alternative foregone in the pursuit of an activity. This is a hallmark of anything dealing with economics--and life for that matter--because any action that you take prevents you from doing something else. The ultimate source of opportunity cost is the pervasive problem of scarcity (unlimited wants and needs, but limited resources). Whenever limited resources are used to satisfy one want or need, there are an unlimited number of other wants and needs that remain unsatisfied. Herein lies the essence of opportunity cost. Doing one thing prevents doing another.

     See also | economics | scarcity | unlimited wants and needs | limited resources | resources | scarce resource | free resources | production possibilities | production possibilities frontier | law of increasing opportunity cost | value | satisfaction | consumption | production | economic cost | accounting cost | total cost |

OPPORTUNITY COST, AmosWEB GLOSS*arama, http://www.AmosWEB.com, AmosWEB LLC, 2000-2025. [Accessed: April 27, 2025].

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A science-fiction phenomenon that emerged in the second half of the 20th century, which not only entertained millions of fans worldwide for decades, but also can be used to illustrate important economic concepts such as scarcity.

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Today, you are likely to spend a great deal of time searching for rummage sales wanting to buy either throw pillows for your bed or a package of blank rewritable CDs. Be on the lookout for crowded shopping malls.
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