The price of things versus their cost

Manafort's mug shot, or, the look of a man who is starting to realize the depths of his losses

When we want to buy something, we usually know its price. The story of Paul Manafort shows we rarely realize the cost.

Manafort was an addict, though not in the traditional sense. Looking at the details of his case -- the clothes, houses, mistresses -- he was consumed by acquiring. Seeing the photo of his ostrich-skin jacket is akin to seeing a garbage can full of bottles outside an alcoholic’s house. 

(Yes, some of his spending was cover for money laundering. However, most of his smaller-ticket items -- the dozens of suits, shoes, and jackets -- reflect his spending preferences because they don’t hold resale value well. Also, the fact he bought stuff so he could buy more stuff speaks to his addiction to buying stuff.)

The infamous ostrich-skin jacket

Like most addictions, Manafort’s came at a far greater cost than the exorbitant sticker price of tacky clothes. For one, he’ll be in prison for, if not the rest of his life, the rest of it worth living. But while sad, jail time isn’t unheard of for high profile white collar criminals. People can bounce back from that sort of thing. 

The detail that struck me is how his daughter dealt with the consequences of her father’s crimes: she changed her last name.

Jessica Manafort, 36, filed to change her surname in Manhattan Supreme Court late Friday to "Jessica Bond," multiple reports showed Saturday. The independent filmmaker said she filed for the name change “to separate myself and my work from a public perception that has nothing to do with the person that I am.”

The last name Manafort will be associated with greed and corruption as long as Jessica Bond lives. In a move that matches her father's reputation for ruthlessness, she cut her losses. 

I could see Paul Manafort taking a calculated risk that his crimes could land him in jail. He may have thought some of his deals could've bankrupted him. Given the sketchy Russian oligarchs who paid him, I’ll bet he even weighed the risk of being killed. But having his child reject their shared name out of shame? I doubt Manafort figured that in as a potential cost of his actions. No one would. 

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Entire industries are premised on taking advantage of the difference between the price people will pay for a good versus the true cost of it. Economist Richard Thaler won a Nobel Prize for describing this, and similar, habits of thinking. The most expensive goods -- houses and cars -- are where this is most true. People spend their time negotiating the price down with the car dealer, but ignore the finance charges. We congratulate ourselves for negotiating down the price of the house, but don’t account for the enitre cost of the 30 year mortgage. 

(When I bought my first house, the mortgage salesman showed me the spreadsheet of all that I would pay over the 30 year life of the mortgage -- interest plus principal payments. In a moment of inadvertent admission, he said to me, “Those numbers are so huge, I just try not to look at them.” This was the person selling the mortgage.) 

But cost encompasses so much more than money. Every purchase takes up time, space, and attention. The real cost comes in to play when one factors in the two things we can't replace -- time and people. 

At its core, the story of Paul Manafort is the story of a life spent life in an endless search for more, then paying for it for with his relationships with his family and the time he can move freely on this earth. It is a parable of understanding what wanting something can really cost. 

That is, we are great knowing the price of something and terrible at knowing its cost.