An already unchangeable cost is not recovered simply by continuing. Present materials, information and actual promises may change the next choice; future actions and their conditions are compared. Continuation, reduction and termination are not correct merely because earlier effort was substantial.
Questions explored
Must the project stop?
Continuation may suit its actual meaning, conditions and remaining actions; the size of past expenditure does not decide.
Must the created result be discarded?
Materials can retain present significance under a changed format; use has its own conditions.
Does stopping cancel promises?
A known accepted agreement and the cost of changing it need consideration; the article establishes no legal consequences.
Key distinctions
Irrecoverability is established for a particular element, not every payment at once. (United Wisdom conditional adult analysis)
Created materials and skills are present possibilities distinct from the cost of creating them. (United Wisdom conditional adult analysis)
Jevons distinguishes past labour, future utility and new labour’s influence through supply. (Jevons historical economic argument)
A real cost of stopping and accepted promises need separate consideration. (United Wisdom conditional adult analysis)
Past involvement creates no indefinite permission for a new action. (United Wisdom conditional adult analysis)
Continuation can rest on a new present foundation. (United Wisdom conditional adult analysis)
Limits of interpretation
- Ordinary voluntary adult project; no financial, contractual or specialist recommendation.
- Historical economic value is not a universal measure of dignity, memory, consent or moral obligations.
- Original practice untested; costs, regret and outcome not promised to improve.
Sources
- The Theory of Political Economy — W. Stanley Jevons
Actually read metadata67–85, continuous selected1157–1171. Fresh open returned1133–1316 actually read, including relevant own argument1158–1172 and adjacent attributed passages/notes. Entire book not read.
Source use: UNKNOWN_EXACT_GLOBAL_OPERATION