Class is in session.

Today at anger-ranting we are going to have a lesson about sunk costs. It is most easily defined as costs that cannot be recovered once they have been spent. Sunk costs can also apply in situations that do not deal with money. Read the following for some example:

• A car dealership buys cars from the dealer, they will lower the price, even if it is eventually a price lower than they paid, just to get rid of the car. The car was a sunk cost, any money they could get from it is a good thing.
• You are in a building and you press the button for the elevator. You stand waiting there for 5 minutes. Do you wait any longer? No. The 5 minutes you waited are a sunk cost, you cannot get them back. From this point on it may still be faster to go up the stairs then wait any longer.
• You have been with your wife for 5 years and have 5 kids. She is cheating on you, and she tells you that she is cheating on you with your best friend. Do you leave her. Trick question. But the 5 years and the 5 kids are a sunk cost, it doesn't matter if you are with her or not.
• Now to the Brewers. You are paying Suppan over $10 million a year. He is horrible, and gets shelled early and often in your Season Opener. Do you cut him? Of course. I constantly hear all this crap about, well we are paying him $10 mil a year. It doesn't matter, that is a sunk cost. We could cut him and pay him $10 mil a year to bag groceries and give his spot to someone else. This is the most basic definition of a sunk cost. Look at what the Tigers did. They are paying SHeffield over $13 mil to play for the Mets, they just don't want him on their team. We should just cut Suppan and eat his money, or even trade him for a corned beef sandwich.

Class dismissed.