Impact of Coronavirus on Budget Constraint
Budget and Consumer Choices
The coronavirus pandemic has drastically reduced income inflows towards the information sector. This situation has directly translated to a reduced budget for millions of people across the world as most companies providing employment for these persons have shutdown operations to curb the further spread of the virus. To maximize utility, affected persons have had to reevaluate their basket of products and services that they can afford during this trying time. Given the limited income that most persons have saved up, most of the funds will go towards meeting the most basic of needs such as food and shelter. Consumer choices are now limited to what will sustain their income until things return to normalcy.
Scarcity and Opportunity Cost
As a consequence, the coronavirus pandemic presents scarcity and choice to individuals and society. Scarcity arises from the limited income that people are faced with hence are pushed to make choices based on what is important in their hierarchy of needs. More importantly, there is the issue of cost that arises due to scarcity. People have to weigh the benefits of the commodities and services to derive the most utility and value for their money at this difficult time. The choices made bring about an opportunity cost which is the cost of the foregone items as a result of the choice taken. Following the onset of the coronavirus, most students were advised to go back home and stay home until normalcy is established. As a result, since some of us had rented spaces to attend classes and working part-time jobs to cater for the costs then are forced to seek alternatives. Faced with these difficult choices, my roommate and I decided that it would be better to return home and move out of the apartment as we could not secure part-time income generating employment to cater for rent and food. The scarcity of money to sustain our life at our rented space has forced us to move in back with our parents for safety and economic reasons. These personal choices have resulted in us rescinding other things in our lives such as time spent at the library or money spent on other things we loved doing. The spare income we could afford was spent on airline or bus tickets pack home and buying face masks and sanitizers. The coronavirus has also necessitated us to spend more on nutritional food at home as opposed to earlier. As a consequence, we have forgone fast-foods and take outs to keep us healthy and in good shape.
Personal reflection
The coronavirus has really taken great toll on the life of every one across the globe as governments have to take greater measures to protect its citizens. These measures have disrupted the normal ways of life and forced many to make great economic sacrifices. The contraction of the budget constraint has also forced families to spend more on food since most of us are at home. Outdoors activities are limited hence we have to spend much of the time indoors doing constructive things and catching up on our reading as we await resumption of studies. Instead of on-campus classes most schools have switched to online classes to keep students engaged with their coursework and mitigate the drastic effects brought by the coronavirus.