opportunity cost

we have the austrian school to thank for the seemingly irrefutable reductiveness of the alternative cost theory. at least marshall and his ilk pointed out that the opportunity cost argument works only if resources are fixed, ceterus paribus, so to speak. (see opportunity cost doctrine)

what this means for our dilemma of choice is circularity and oversimplification, for our own sanity or selfishness. we make and fix our own choices as black and white, cost and worth, so that we can conveniently avoid thinking about the possibilities we cannot easily account for, or the other responsibilities we might otherwise have to take.

in other words, when we simplify into pragmatics, we don't have to feel bad justifying our clearly 'sensible' choices. sensible to us and to all others who buy into the alienating postmodern outlook.