system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
What is implicit cost?

Is implicit cost the opportunity cost of a resource to be used in some other way than being allocated in the factors of production for the producer?
gpt
The implicit cost of a resource is the opportunity cost of its expenditure that will not show up as a visible expense

Let's say for example you are deciding whether to college. Let's say college costs $20,000 a month for 4 years. When you come out, you are going to take a job that makes $100,000 per year.

People would be tempted to say that you're paying $80,000 for college, but that's not true. There is also the time cost of 4 years, which could have been put to the best alternative use. That's 4 years of time that you could have spent working at another job. Let's say that the best job w/o a bachelor's degree makes $80,000 (oversimplifying). Well then you're paying an explicit cost of $80k for the cost of college, AS WELL AS the implicit cost of also putting in time that could have been used to make $320k. It's implicit because you won't see a receipt during the college process that says you're $400k in the hole, but it's nevertheless true. And, that's not including interest rates on your loans and potential investments into indexes or other assets that you could have made during that time with your money

So you think your $100k job is worth it when you pay off the loans, but really the degree pays itself off when your lifetime earnings with the degree outpace your potential lifetime earnings that you could have made if you put your time to the best alternative use.