People Face Trade-offs

Instructions:

You have one semester left to graduate and you have the finances to do a maximum of four courses. Three of the courses are required courses. The last course slot belongs to an elective. You have narrowed down your choices to three electives, all of which are very popular and very useful courses that you are very interested in. Decide on the course you want to take. Then using at least two economic decision-making principles, explain why you are making this choice. Develop a response that includes examples and evidence to support your ideas, and which clearly communicates the required message to your audience. Organize your response in a clear and logical manner as appropriate for the genre of writing. Use well-structured sentences, audience-appropriate language, and correct conventions of standard American English.

Suggested Sources:

Principles of Macroeconomics 8th edition Mankiw

Solution

People Face Trade-Offs

            In our daily lives, people will undergo tough decisions and have to choose between two or more tasks at a given time and debate which one will be the best possible option. Through the principles of economics, people can make decisions effectively through two types of principles: “Facing Tradeoff” and “Opportunity Cost.” As a current senior with only one semester left to graduate, I have the difficult decision choosing among three electives: Music and Artistry Management, Audio Production and Recording, and Intro to Marketing & Sales. Although all three electives have had positive comments and can help me with my career upon graduation, each class has a different experience and skill set I can gain that will benefit me as business major going into the music industry.

            In order to choose the best class for my career path, I have made a list of tradeoffs and opportunity costs between the three elective classes that can help guide me to make the right decision. I decided to first evaluate Music and Artistry Management. This class would help lead me in the direction I want to do with my future in managing artists and the experience of understanding how to book events for an artist, making sure he or she will succeed greatly with the right audience and is on the right track, juggling between the artist’s work schedule and personal time, and speaking for him or her during a difficult time. With a class that goes into artistry management, it will teach me and give me an insight on how to be prepared when I start managing my own artists one day in my career.

            The second possible elective would be Audio Production and Recording. With this course, it will teach me how the sound production works and the process it goes through in order to produce and record an album. With the experience and knowledge I would gain with this course, it will help when my future artist goes into the studio and I will have prior experience and ideas on how the sound system works when the sound engineer and producer are not in the studio at the time.

            The third possible elective is the Intro to Marketing & Sales. As an inspiring manager in the music industry, there will be many times when I have to sell and market my artist and the work her or she produces. This course will help me gain the right techniques, and knowledge in determining which ways will be the most efficient and catch the audience’s eye. The information I can gain from this class will not only give me the mindset for artist management, but for any area of business; therefore, it can be a very important course that can potentially help me in every field.

            The first economic principle I used is the principle of tradeoffs.  Every decision will involve a tradeoff, whether it is having limited time or money. Although each of the three elective courses will be beneficial for my career upon graduation, there will not be a negative selection but losing the skillset I could have gained. If I were to select Music and Artistry Management course, I would gain the knowledge on how to manage an artist properly and helping them book events and making sure they remain current and successful. By selecting this course, there is a tradeoff that is taking place, which is not being able to take Audio Production and Recording and Intro to Marketing & Sales. Taking Music and Artistry Management will eventually teach me how the production and recording process will work when my artist is recording his or her featured album. I will also go through the journey of learning how to market and sale my artist and his or her work by finding a mentor or doing some research. Although I will not get the detailed version, it will eventually be taught when I am managing my artist. Selecting this course will eventually teach me the remaining of the subjects that I had to give up taking, so all the positive will eventually outweigh the negative.

            The second economic principle I used is the principle of opportunity cost. It is important to understand what one is giving up in order to obtain the other. This is when I have to measure the “cost” of my decision. By choosing to take Music and Artistry Management, I will have to give up learning the recording and producing aspect of an artist creating his or her album from the Audio Production and Recording course and the proper techniques in marketing and selling an artist and his or her work from the Intro to Marketing & Sales course. The gain and knowledge I would receive in taking the Music and Artistry Management course will outweigh the losses incurred by not taking the remainder two courses. Through using the two economic principles to make my decision, it has not only helped me compare the costs, benefits, and tradeoffs between my choices, but by making the most logical and smart conclusion in the selection. By using tradeoffs and opportunity costs in our daily decisions, it will help us make our decisions more efficiently.

People Face Trade-Offs Academic Essay