While most of the comments here are talking about the fact that this is the posters "discovery" of opportunity cost, there's another point to be made here. There are several reasons why, as a startup founder, getting that $660 laptop instead of the $700 one benefits your company other than the $40 that stays in your bank account.
Frugality breeds more frugality: if you set an example, others will follow and compound the financial savings. Frugality can result in camaraderie, since you are all in the rickety boat together eating ramen. Frugality can prevent resentment and walls going up between employees and decision makers, since even the CEO has to cut back on everyday luxuries and lives the same way employees do. Frugality can express your values by giving you an opportunity to "splurge": if you spring for a $500 chair for all the engineers but never fly first class yourself, it shows that you understand how important a good working environment is compared to other things that are perceived to be frivolous. Frugality can serve as a reminder of risk: if you're surrounded by luxuries you can forget you are actually a startup fighting to stay alive. Frugality can maintain a good relationship with investors even when the going gets tough, since it shows you're trying your best to avoid blowing their investment. Frugality can motivate employees and reward them for success, since you'll only add perks when the company can afford them, and when you do, the team made it happen not the VCs. The list goes on.
I think this gets into a debate that can't really be settled with rights and wrongs, but:
Frugality for frugality's sake is just as dangerous as extravagance for extravagance's sake. Saving $40 on a laptop is great if and only if you're positive that a more expensive laptop isn't going to make that money back. The danger of excessive frugality is that you start thinking of employees as costs to be trimmed, as opposed to investments who generally pay handsome dividends.
Never underestimate the productivity of an engineer who has everything he needs.
Slightly off-topic: I had ramen a few times in Japan, and while truly delicious, it's massively expensive and rather exotic. Why is ramen a synonym for "cheap" in the US (apparently)? Or does it mean just "instant noodles" over there?
There are ramen restaurants in cities with larger Asian populations like NYC and Los Angeles. To most Americans, however, ramen refers to the $0.50/meal packs of instant noodles.
The US of A has a greater capacity to produce grains needed to produce the noodles, and can deliver them to market without having to put them on a boat. Japan has less arable land, so less grain producing land, and (probably) has to import more (which requires boats).
> The US of A has a greater capacity to produce grains needed to produce the noodles
And more importantly, a greater capacity to subsdize production of said grains.
Edit: Did this comment really get greyed out? The mechanism for that is still kind of mysterious to me. Let me clarify, I don't mean the US has more money, just a dumber system of farm subsidies.
That could hurt your company if they follow your example and don't make that value calculation, and chase $40 savings instead of spending their time more wisely.
(I also was under the impression that there wasn't any difference in the quality of the hypothetical $700/$660 laptops, that the difference in price merely comes from trying to exploit inefficiencies in the market.)
Frugality breeds more frugality: if you set an example, others will follow and compound the financial savings. Frugality can result in camaraderie, since you are all in the rickety boat together eating ramen. Frugality can prevent resentment and walls going up between employees and decision makers, since even the CEO has to cut back on everyday luxuries and lives the same way employees do. Frugality can express your values by giving you an opportunity to "splurge": if you spring for a $500 chair for all the engineers but never fly first class yourself, it shows that you understand how important a good working environment is compared to other things that are perceived to be frivolous. Frugality can serve as a reminder of risk: if you're surrounded by luxuries you can forget you are actually a startup fighting to stay alive. Frugality can maintain a good relationship with investors even when the going gets tough, since it shows you're trying your best to avoid blowing their investment. Frugality can motivate employees and reward them for success, since you'll only add perks when the company can afford them, and when you do, the team made it happen not the VCs. The list goes on.