Okay, I have this buddy pal. We've been friends since the third time i stepped my feet to FEUI. We do a lot things together including coming to classes late, going to movies, visiting pool, skipping pa1 and pa2 (we both and my other 15 friends failed in pa2), doing things considered academically dangerous and the like. Not to mention wasting times to play some card.
(I'm not gonna tell you story about us, it's the human behavior in term of economic I would like to analyze)
First, I see him (my friend above) as one of the "haves". Well, I mean he definitely doesn't have any economy problem, if not rich. Secondly, from the times we spent together (dooh) I saw that he consumed services and goods economically.
We once had this conversation :
"makan yu, terserah dmn"
"Sate mau ga?"
"yauda si, dmn?"
"ada nih, deket ruma gw, highly recommended"
"Oh, ok. Tp enak kan?"
"enak enak, eh ngga juga si. biasa murah"
"ha?"
"Iya, gw sering beli disitu, rasanya biasa tp murah"
*speechless*
Well, I'm not saying that he is cheap. But according to the economic theory I used to learn, people will try to maximize his/her satisfaction with the minimum sacrifice. In my friend case, he just wanted to minimize his sacrifice without maximum satisfaction. And in a certain theory, the decision of people when they meet regular problems (let's say getting dinner) is influenced only by what they think is the most beneficial for them.
But let's get subjective here, and please forget the ceteris paribus for a while. I and my several friends choose to pay more money if the food tastes better. I maximize my satisfaction by buying goods or services that serves satisfactory. And the I will pay it as long as I consider it reasonable (that's the consumer surplus).
It's not the only sample I use to explain (or question?) the anomaly of consumer behavior, I don't play tight. There's a massive number of samples in everyday-type-activities that I do believe are identical with the sample above.
The main point I'm trying to deliver here is, whether a consumer wants to maximize his satisfaction with a minimum sacrifice or whether he wants to minimize his sacrifice only without any consideration of satisfaction depends on what the consumer think is the most beneficial for him and eventually satisfying him (and again another term of satisfaction).