Anthony Weiner's Sunk Costs?

(Photo: Pablo Manriquez)

Anthony Weiner is still running for mayor of New York as I write this, though that status may soon change. Not coincidentally, a reader named Jon Creem (an unfortunate aptonym in this case?) writes in to say:

Yesterday I enjoyed listening to your show about “Quitting.” The segment where you explained “sunk cost” was especially interesting.

I took the explanation as people’s unwillingness to give up due to the amount of investment (time, money, etc) they have already made.

Then, when catching up on the latest Anthony Weiner mayoral saga, I couldn’t help make a connection.

Is this guy refusing to remove himself from the race because he feels he has done too much already to drop out now? In my opinion the odds are stacked against him regardless of how good a politician he is.

I assume continuing to campaign will only cost him more time and money. Is it worth it for him to continue?

Insofar as pride and ego are components of sunk cost, I guess Jon is right. On the other hand, it doesn’t strike me that Weiner’s continuing to run is really about sunk cost. Modern politics is so often an exercise in ego, hubris, and narcissism — and if I were to armchair-analyze Weiner, I’d suggest that these factors are much more important than the sunk costs of time and money.

Plus which: it could be argued that even this much bad publicity is, in the end, publicity, which might serve him well months or years down the road.

Plus which again: who’s to say that Weiner won’t actually win the mayoral race? At this moment it seems unlikely but New York politics aren’t very predictable.

By the way: not many people seem to be paying attention (yet) to independent candidate Jack Hidary, but for those voters hoping to keep a Bloombergian approach (and there are many), Hidary would seem to be an enticing choice.