Parable of the Broken Window
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Parable of the Broken Window
1–10 of 17 posts
Re: Parable of the Broken Window
#2So the argument is that breaking a shopkeeper's window never makes sense even though it creates business opportunities for glaziers because the money the shopkeeper must spend on repairing their window could be spent on something else. Makes sense. But what if that something else is buying a prostitute, gambling or "investing" in stocks (i.e giving money to banks)? Maybe paying kids to break windows to create jobs for glaziers could be "good for the economy". At least sometimes.
Re: Parable of the Broken Window
#3So the argument is that breaking a shopkeeper's window never makes sense even though it creates business opportunities for glaziers because the money the shopkeeper must spend on repairing their window could be spent on something else. Makes sense. But what if that something else is buying a prostitute, gambling or "investing" in stocks (i.e giving money to banks)? Maybe paying kids to break windows to create jobs fo…
On the whole it's negative. The more it's done the poorer we all become. And any indirect benefit (preventing infidelity or gambling through distraction/destruction) is so unreliable it's not a functional framework for progress.
Re: Parable of the Broken Window
#4One wonders if planned obsolescence is just economic value being "created" by more windows being broken.
Re: Parable of the Broken Window
#5So the argument is that breaking a shopkeeper's window never makes sense even though it creates business opportunities for glaziers because the money the shopkeeper must spend on repairing their window could be spent on something else. Makes sense. But what if that something else is buying a prostitute, gambling or "investing" in stocks (i.e giving money to banks)? Maybe paying kids to break windows to create jobs fo…
On the whole it's negative. The more it's done the poorer we all become. And any indirect benefit (preventing infidelity or gambling through distraction/destruction) is so unreliable it's not a functional framework for progress.
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Re: Parable of the Broken Window
#6President Obama’s Cash for Clunkers program [1] where used cars in good condition were destroyed to increase sales of new cars seems to have been based on the broken window fallacy.
[1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Car_Allowance_Rebate_System
Re: Parable of the Broken Window
#7President Obama’s Cash for Clunkers program [1] where used cars in good condition were destroyed to increase sales of new cars seems to have been based on the broken window fallacy. [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Car_Allowance_Rebate_System
Although in this scenario, there’s (theoretically) an externalized benefit of improved fuel efficiency. So it’s possible that it is a net positive for society?
Re: Parable of the Broken Window
#8I wonder if entertainment could be analogous to destruction? Like, do Taylor Swift concerts actually generate useful economic activity, or is it a broken window? Presumably those concert goers would have spent that money on something more useful..
Re: Parable of the Broken Window
#9So the argument is that breaking a shopkeeper's window never makes sense even though it creates business opportunities for glaziers because the money the shopkeeper must spend on repairing their window could be spent on something else. Makes sense. But what if that something else is buying a prostitute, gambling or "investing" in stocks (i.e giving money to banks)? Maybe paying kids to break windows to create jobs fo…
On the whole it's negative. The more it's done the poorer we all become. And any indirect benefit (preventing infidelity or gambling through distraction/destruction) is so unreliable it's not a functional framework for progress.
The point of scientific inquiry is to make "claims" into "facts" by finding "evidence". We have a "claim", that breaking windows (always) "on the whole is negative". However, there is no "evidence" to be found. Thus, it is not a "fact". Modern societies are very complicated to just referring to "common sense" is not enough.
Re: Parable of the Broken Window
#10Broken windows can be a net benefit, for example the london neighborhoods hit by bombs during world war 2 are now far denser and more economically active. The idea that broken windows are always negative is as simplistic as the idea that they are always positive.