This post is very late. It was supposed to be up about 6 days ago. The cost of me spending the entire weekend (including last thursday) with my family and my man and attending Sarah and Chris' beautiful wedding was me not posting this blog. But, it did give me something interesting to write about.
Disclaimer- I am a female, I think pink. Blue people (males) may not quite understand this one.
The cost of a wedding isn't just the amount of money spent on the dress, venue, and flowers or the time spent pulling it together and actually performing the ceremony. A wedding means a person is committing to spend there entire life with the person they say "I do" to. That means they have given up all other options. The "cost" of marrying a person is everyone else you could have potentially married. Sarah and Chris gave up all other options forever the moment they said I do. Sarah found Chris so amazing that she willingly gave up all other potential suitors, and vice versa. So, the cost of a wedding (or marriage, really) is all the other people you could have been with.
Opportunity cost is everywhere.
I went ahead and ran an economic analysis of the whole institution of marriage. As you say, the opportunity cost of marrying a person is that you have to give up all other options forever the moment you say I do. When you think about it that way, it makes economic sense to stay in a marriage and fight for your marriage as long as you can. The costs you paid to get married are incredibly high! You're not 'getting your money's worth' if you just give up on your marriage the moment that things get rough.
ReplyDeleteBut wait! Those costs are sunk costs! They are gone you can never get them back. They have no relevance to your future decisions from an economic standpoint. It's like Professor Wall says, if the movie sucks, you're not going to "get your money's worth" if you stay and suffer through the whole thing. That $10 bucks is gone, it's not coming back. It's a sunk cost.
I don't know Sarah and Chris, but I honestly wish them the best. Just do their marriage a favor and if you have to teach them about economics, leave out the concept of "sunk costs".