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Opportunity cost
147
MENTIONS
47
EPISODES
47
PODCASTS
Search complete. 147 mentions across 47 episodes found for "Opportunity cost".
Sep 12, 2026
Sam HassellHOST
That's something you also have to roughly estimate and to be mindful of so you can compare against other opportunities and opportunity costs, etc.
Sam HassellHOST
You also need to be mindful of what the other opportunities are that you have in front of you or that could have in front of you if you pursued them and what the opportunity cost is there, as I said.
Sam HassellHOST
It just depends what those other opportunities could be or what those alternatives could be.
Sam HassellHOST
If the student has no other alternatives, it's like, I either will start a business or I will die.
Natasha Ann ZachariahHOST
Mm-hmm.
Bhavan JaipragasGUEST
You have to pay t- top people, not top dollar, but enough to get them through the door and minimize the opportunity cost.
Bhavan JaipragasGUEST
So, uh, successive leaders have quite stoutly defended this policy, and for 15 years they could not up- update it, and, and they had to do it, and this is kind of an opportune moment to do it, uh, one year after the election.
Bhavan JaipragasGUEST
And, uh, the kind of domestic economic situation, while still uncertain, is at a point where it has abated.
9 MINS LATER
Natasha Ann ZachariahHOST
I think most people would agree with that, and they should want to serve Singapore, 'cause after all, it's a public service role, right? Um, but, and I'm paraphrasing here, basically what they were also saying is that uncompetitive salaries shouldn't deter someone from entering politics.
Natasha Ann ZachariahHOST
Is there a contradiction here, Bhavin?
Bhavan JaipragasGUEST
I think the nuance here is that they are trying to minimize the opportunity cost-
Natasha Ann ZachariahHOST
Mm
Neil HumphreysHOST
Yeah.
Bhavan JaipragasGUEST
And they have s- expended political capital on it to say that this is what we need to do, uh, to get good people in and to reduce the opportunity cost of getting people in from the private sector.
Bhavan JaipragasGUEST
And I think there's no two ways about it, and the formula, there's a lot of discussion about it.
Bhavan JaipragasGUEST
It, and I think even the government has considered that it is not a science.
15 MINS LATER
Audrey SiekHOST
It's about getting the right people with the right capabilities and values to serve the country well and keep Singapore moving in the right direction." So I think the question a lot of people have is, ultimately, is the price justified? Is that correct?
Bhavan JaipragasGUEST
Yes, that's the, the immediate question.
Bhavan JaipragasGUEST
For me, the bigger conundrum is whether which, whichever side of politics you are in this country, will good people, will good clean people, will competent people step up to run for office, and are they willing to stomach the inevitable opportunity cost of doing so?
Neil HumphreysHOST
Yeah.
Bhavan JaipragasGUEST
I believe really, if you study the PAP just as a phenomenon, it is in the soul of the party that it believes really from 94, they believe that you have to do this.
Bhavan JaipragasGUEST
You have to pay top people, not top dollar, but enough to get them through the door and minimize the opportunity cost.
Bhavan JaipragasGUEST
So, Successive leaders have quite stoutly defended this policy and for 15 years they could not update it and they had to do it.
Bhavan JaipragasGUEST
And this is kind of an opportune moment to do it one year after the election.
9 MINS LATER
Natasha Ann ZachariahHOST
And they should want to serve Singapore because after all, it's a public service role, right? But, and I'm paraphrasing here, basically what they were also saying is that uncompetitive salaries shouldn't deter someone from entering politics.
Natasha Ann ZachariahHOST
Is there a contradiction here, Bhavan?
Bhavan JaipragasGUEST
I think the nuance here is that they are trying to minimize the opportunity cost for the people they are trying to get through the door.
Bhavan JaipragasGUEST
Certainly, you don't want anyone to come there because you're paying X amount of dollars.
CaityHOST
Yeah, definitely.
CaityHOST
And on that, I also want to speak into the opportunity cost, which I think is something that people often forget.
CaityHOST
It's like, okay, you're presented with an opportunity and it's like, okay, great.
CaityHOST
This is what I'm going to gain if I do it.
Amy VandeputteHOST
So this is where I don't know how to make the bridge between doing it and not doing it.
Amy VandeputteHOST
I guess when this happened to me and when I started understanding the concept of opportunity cost, it more happened when I saw someone give the example of taking a taxi versus the subway.
Amy VandeputteHOST
So let's say you make 50 euros an hour and you take the subway and it takes you an hour.
Amy VandeputteHOST
and you need to pay €3 for it.
Lawrence ReedGUEST
When you make a choice to do this or to buy that, the real cost of that activity or that product is all the stuff now that you can't have or can't do because you're doing that.
Lawrence ReedGUEST
Opportunity cost is what we call that, the foregone opportunities.
Lawrence ReedGUEST
It has a lot of implications in economics, but probably more than we want to get into today.
Lawrence ReedGUEST
But then we have, in the free trade discussion, what is known as the principle of free exchange, which says that both sides to a free trade benefit.
LG DoucetHOST
They give you nice dividends, but it's like, you know, if you held Apple and you thought maybe I should get into Micron a year ago or some of these other stocks, how do you mentally manage that, Dougie? Take a pause from the TA for a second.
LG DoucetHOST
And like, how do you manage, I guess your port, but more so like, just opportunity cost, right? Because you're right, SpaceX, yeah, probably will be over 200, maybe 300, 400, 500, who knows, eventually, but it's not, it's clearly not right now.
Dougie Fresh PicksGUEST
Yeah, and it's clearly struggling, and like you're saying, do you want to have money tied up? That's the other thing, too.
Dougie Fresh PicksGUEST
Do you have a long-term account and a trading account? That's how I try to Work it every day because I do day trade every day.
Katelyn RhoadesHOST
And I really hope that I can resonate with at least one of you guys today.
Katelyn RhoadesHOST
And it's all about opportunity cost, because I don't know if you realize it or not.
Katelyn RhoadesHOST
But every yes that you say yes to costs you something.
Katelyn RhoadesHOST
And the next level of success is learning to evaluate these opportunities by what they take.
12 MINS LATER
Katelyn RhoadesHOST
It's the 10 other little things you say no to because you said yes to this.
Katelyn RhoadesHOST
Every yes automatically creates a no somewhere else.
Katelyn RhoadesHOST
And that's opportunity cost.
Katelyn RhoadesHOST
When I say yes to flying across the country for a speaking engagement, I'm not just saying yes to an hour on stage.
Mihai SoraHOST
That's a perfect segue.
Mihai SoraHOST
Let's talk about opportunity cost, right? This is the question that comes up a lot in the public.
Mihai SoraHOST
The 2026 integrated investment program puts the submarines at 71 to $96 billion over the decade, somewhere between 17 and 23% of the whole investment program.
Mihai SoraHOST
That's a larger share than the Air Force, larger share than the Army, Staying on Jen, if defence spending does not rise to meet that share, what should give? Or at what point does the opportunity cost outweigh the capability?
Jennifer ParkerGUEST
It's interesting.
Jennifer ParkerGUEST
I get the shakes when I think about the integrated investment program because I lost too many hours years of my life working in that Excel spreadsheet.
37 more episodes mention Opportunity cost.
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