Final answer:
The slope of the budget line reflects the opportunity cost, not the consumer's marginal value. It indicates the trade-off between two goods on a budget constraint while the marginal utility to price ratio dictates the optimal consumption choice.
Step-by-step explanation:
The statement that the slope of the budget line always equals the consumer's marginal value is false. Instead, the slope of the budget line indicates the opportunity cost of the good on the horizontal axis. For instance, if the slope is -0.25 for Alphonso, this means that for every bus ticket he purchases, he has to give up a quarter of a burger. Therefore, it represents the trade-off between two goods.
At the optimal choice, consumers maximize utility based on their budget. The ratio of marginal utility to price for each good becomes equal, as demonstrated by the given example where the ratio of marginal utility to price for T-shirts (22:14) is equal to that for movies (11:7) at point S, which represents the optimal choice of one T-shirt and six movies.
However, the marginal utility of each good shifts with varying quantities consumed, while the relative prices remain constant along the budget constraint.