Opportunity Cost

   Last week my brother asked me if I would like to purchase his I-pad. I asked him how much he would charge me and he said $400.00. At that moment I realized I needed to make a constructive decision. So, I decided to create a list of pros and cons of purchasing his I-pad. The pros I discovered were: I could be able to access my email faster, create cool power-points for school through Keynote, and play fun games that I am not able to access on my computer. The cons I found were: it costs a lot of money, my savings account money would decrease and I would have to purchase all the apps and music. By weighing both the pros and cons, I had the ability to make a mature decision with my money. I was given a couple of days to make my decision about the large purchase.
    The opportunity cost of spending $400.00 on my brother's 32GB I-pad was that I would not be able to spend that money on items I would want to buy later in life.  For example, with $400.00 I could purchase: perfumes, lotions, CD's, iTunes gift cards, clothes, shoes, jewelry, a laptop, video games, and more. I feel that this opportunity cost was not as severe as some would interpret it. The reason why I feel this is because an I-pad has so many capabilities that one could not receive on a laptop or computer. In my opinion, I think my decision on purchasing my brother's I-pad at a cheaper price was a mature monetary decision. I wonder how our government made the extreme decision on bailing out the economy during the recession? What was their opportunity costs?