Question

Bob is training for a triathlon, a timed race that combines swimming, biking, and running.Consider the following sentence: Bob has only 20 hours this week that she can devote to training. Each hour she spends swimming is an hour that she can't spend biking or running.Which basic principle of individual choice do these statements best illustrate?A. Bob can use time most efficiently by spending the same amounts of time on swimming, biking, and running.B. People face trade-offsC. People usually exploit opportunities to make themselves better off.D. Bob has an incentive to spend more time on swimming than on biking or running.

Answer 1

Answer:

B) People face trade-offs

Explanation:

A trade-off happens when you have to balance two (or three in this case) opposing situations. In economics all resources are scarce, and time is the only resource that everyone shares equally. Bob is facing opportunity costs, i.e. if he chooses to train one activity he cannot train the other.

Bob has to decide how to divide the time he can spend training. If he chooses running, he can´t swim or ride a bike. So he has to balance the time spent on each activity, probably depending on which sport he needs to train the most.