Activities
1. Researching Costs
Choose three colleges you would like to attend. Visit your guidance counselor and ask for the appropriate college catalogues. Look up the following costs:
- Tuition expenses
- Living expenses
- Books
- Travel
- Interest on loans
- Miscellaneous
Now that you have an idea of the cost of a college education, decide what other things you could do with the money.
- If you put it in the bank, how much interest would it earn over the course of a lifetime?
- If you went to work for those four years, how much could you earn?
- If you started a business, how much could you earn with the money?
- How much could you earn if all your college money was invested in the stock market?
- What type of job do you expect to get when you finish college? How much will it pay?
- If you do not go to college, what kind of job will you expect to get? How much will it pay?
- Are there non-monetary benefits in obtaining a college education which outweigh the opportunity cost of the money spent?
2. Local Government Budget
You have been asked by the council of governors to draw up a proposed budget for state and local government. The council also wants to know what positive gains will come from your changes and what negative effects will result from your decision to change spending patterns. In the chart below, please write in your choice for the amount of the budget (in %) to be spent on each item. (Last year's amounts are listed.) Then list one positive and one negative effect of your decision. | |||
| Expenditures (%) | Your decision (%) | One positive gain | One negative result |
| Education 35.0% | . | . | . |
| Public Welfare 13.0% | . | . | . |
| Highways 8.0% | . | . | . |
| Hospitals 7.0% | . | . | . |
| Police 4.0% | . | . | . |
| Parks & Rec. 6.0% | . | . | . |
| Public Transit 5.0% | . | . | . |
| Public Housing 6.5% | . | . | . |
| Others 16.0% | . | . | . |
3. Writing an Essay
Read the excerpt below on strip mining and then write a two hundred word essay describing the opportunity cost of strip mining. In the essay, write a paragraph explaining how each of the following has been effected by strip mining:
- Individual worker
- Worker's family
- Local inhabitants
- Natural habitat
Strip Mining
Coal is deeply woven in the story of Appalachia's poverty. Underground coal mining hit a peak after World War I I (1939-1945). Many Appalachian men worked in deep pit mines where narrow shafts were dug to reach the coal. In the 1950s the mining companies began strip mining. This new method, instead of digging tunnels, used huge machines to scrape wide but shallow holes in the hillside to lay bare the coal. Many miners lost their jobs. Some moved to large cities to look for work, but most stayed. There were few jobs for them, however.
Strip mining has wounded the land of Appalachia as well as the people. Strip mining tears off the top soil—the richest soil—and leaves the hillsides bare. Rains wash away what soil is left. A few mining companies cover up their cuts, but many move on and leave the damaged land behind. Depressed local governments, desperate for jobs, are hesitant to impose restrictions on mining concerns.
Since the 1970s there has been widespread opposition to strip mining, and applications for permits to start new stripping operations have met bitter resistance from environmentalists and citizens' groups. Such opposition has added the cost of litigation and lobbying, before any mining operation can get underway.
| Reading for this lesson | Teacher's Notes | Further Investigations | Economic Studies Index |