What I spend is someone else’s income. Apple co-founder Steve Jobs discussed every morning at breakfast with his family about buying a set of Miele washing machines and dryers from Germany for two weeks. Why? Of course, it was to teach their children about economics and to illustrate a lesson about opportunity cost, a common trait among wealthy people. If you buy this washing machine, you cannot buy that one. That is the opportunity cost. It’s a form of relative value, based on the idea that choosing one option means sacrificing another, so the value of each can be compared within those limits. Wealth begins with training in understanding even trivial opportunity costs. To succeed in business, you need to learn how to measure opportunity cost first, rather than just how to make money. - Joseph’s “just my thoughts”
Life can feel joyful when we have many close relationships, but this often gradually brings more anguish as well. Intimacy is also crucial to us, yet just as much as it is, “blatant ignorance” and a “healthy dose of distance” significantly influence our happiness. For instance, I can’t eat meat from a slaughtered cow that I have carefully nursed, but I am content eating the meat from a cow that I did not nurture. The fact that I have made money means my gains are a return for the damages of someone unknown to the economic system of this world, yet I can only be happy because I do not know adequately. Without blatant ignorance and a healthy dose of distance , our happiness deteriorates terribly. - Joseph’s “just my thoughts”