The Long Road

There are both costs and benefits to being in a relationship.
Some costs include emotional risk, less free time, more money spent wining and dining and gifting. One cost we might not think about is Opportunity Cost. Opportunity Cost is a term in economics which looks at the opportunities you can't benefit from because you've decided to engage yourself in something else; basically, it's stuff you're missing out on. The Opportunity Cost of being with a guy/girl is not being able to be with other guys/girls. That might be an oversimplification, but I think it holds true. If you find that your relationship makes you miss out on friends, family, or alone time, then you're either a) not trying hard enough, b) in a bad relationship, or c) whipped.

Benefits to a relationship are quite similar. There's the emotional highs, the fact that you'll always have someone to spend your free time with, and eventually, dual income. And, yes, the Secks.

While its outside the realm of this blogger's ablities to quantify each of these elements in a rigorous Cost/Benefit analysis, a general quideline would be that when Cost exceeds Benefit, it's a strong indicator that changes should be made and perhaps an exist strategy should be considered. I will go ahead and assume, without loss of generality, that being single is at the very least a neutral state. As smart, sentient beings, we should always be trending towards more positive positions. In this case, a relationship with negative return will be a less desireable state than singularity.

Come back next time for Part 3: Bukkake AKA "How do I get her to take it in the face?"

Replies: 3 comments

i think you oversimplified the dual incomes thing - it's more than that. it's the whole, if you have more people working towards the same goal, you're more likely to have one individual that's good at everything (for example, one might be good at cleaning, another might be good at budgeting, etc.). definitely one of the un(der)stated benefits of marriage and raising kids with two parents.

dear me ... i think the economist is brainwashing me. help. :

Posted by melpie @ 07/10/2007 11:17 PM EST

I can't wait for PART 3!!

Posted by dAN @ 07/16/2007 09:07 PM EST

pervert.

Posted by Long @ 07/17/2007 02:15 PM EST