Sunk Costs 2: the Concorde Fallacy

McRaney writes,

You may not play FarmVille, but there is probably something similar in your life. It could be a degree you want to change, or a career you want to escape, or a relationship you know is rotten. You don't stick with it, or return to it over & over again, to create good experiences & pleasant memories but to hold back the negative emotions you expect to feel if you accept the loss of time, effort, money, or whatever else you have invested. 

If you dropped your cell phone over the edge of a cruise ship, you would need James Cameron's unmanned submarine fleet to find it again. Sure, you could spend a small fortune to retrieve it, but you wouldn't throw good money after bad. When the argument is laid out like this, logical & rational & easy to pick apart, you can pat yourself on the back for being such a reasonable human. Unfortunately, the sunk costs in life aren't always so easy to see. When something is gone forever it can be difficult to realize it. The past isn't as tangible a concept as the sea floor, yet it is just as untouchable. What is left behind is just as irretrievable.

Sunk costs drive wars, push up prices in auctions, & keep failed political policies alive. The fallacy makes you finish the meal when you are already full. It fills your home with things you no longer want or use. Every garage sale is a funeral for someone's sunk costs.