Trade - offs. Figure 10 - 8 also illustrates what the rational choice writers mean by trade - offs. A trade - off refers to what value is being exchanged (and the social costs and benefits imcurred in such an exchange) for what other value. In other words, every time Value X is achieved more fully, all other values are correspondingly reduced in achievement; the benefits gained by increasing resource input to Value X must decrease resource input to all other values.