Opportunity Cost Proposals

People make decisions everyday. Some people choose to make living by working. Some people choose to involve in criminal activities, such as stealing. To reduce crime in Detroit, the government could increase jail time for convicts, and could offer more opportunities for jobs, such as street cleansers. However, by examining opportunity cost and utilities of two proposals above, increasing jail time for convicts is more effective and feasible than just hiring more street cleansers.

People are rational decision makers. They want to maximize their utility and minimize their opportunity cost. However, people could not predict future. They have to risk being punished after crime. Some people willing to take the risk, and some do not. Some people are indifference between taking the risk and not taking the risk. So, now we will focus on the group of people who are indifference to two activities, since the one who willing to take the risk …show more content…
People respond to economic incentives. The salary is the economic incentives for people to choose to work rather than to work. Also, the monetary utilities people get from the jobs are salaries. The opportunity cost of working could be time cost, transportation cost, or else which would be very similar to the opportunity cost of stealing.

People might respond to economic incentives at beginning, and the proposal of working might reduce crime a bit. However, the good situation might not last so long. For some people, street cleaner is not a long-term job. Also, some people are not in the labor force. For example, discouraged workers who do not believe they could find jobs. Another example is that some people are willing to get government’s financial aids rather than work. So, even if the government provides jobs to unemployed, they might refuse to taking the jobs. Also, even if they take the jobs, they would not work for too