Bastiat Does Not Go Far Enough

An addendum to Bastiat's Parable of the Broken Window:
http://mises.org/daily/3860

Bastiat's Shadow:
http://mises.org/daily/3926

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• Frederic
• Bastiat
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• of
• the
• Broken
• Window
• Fallacy
• Austrian
• School
• Economics
• Libertarianism
• State
• Statism
• Anti
• Emergentism
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• Economist

[machaeroguy]

One very realistic scenario that is overlooked, is that the baker may have neither the money nor the skills necessary to replace the window. So I pose the question, has the community gotten richer since the baker now has gaping hole in his shop, and has had to throw out bread because broken glass fell upon it?

[GuardofLiberty]

@machaeroguy The community has lost the value of one window in any scenario. Though the cost to replace the window would probably be less than the cost of leaving it broken.

[SkankingKyle]

what r ur thoughts on marx...marx would kick this nerd's butt. Literally >:)

[GuardofLiberty]

Sorry, but the labor theory of value has been disproven time and time again. It is both philosophically and economically bankrupt.

But once again, I am not averse to worker coops on a free market.

[skiz8x]

@machaeroguy Usually in these situations, insurance pays for these repairs. Which in return causes our insurance to increase, thus taking away more money from us. The point really is as simple as Bastiat makes it, he just makes it with something that's not expensive so it seems not as effective. When you apply it to wars and natural disasters it makes more sense, in the short run it seems to boost the economy but like he says what is unseen is the money that could of been spent in another place.

[pablocoon]

Ron Paul 2012!

[jmitterii2]

But to use this principle to say that WW2 didn't assist in getting the US out of depression is poor. We were the substitute beneficiary of the countries that were in ruins. We had excess labor whose energy until the war was not going to any service or production. Care must be made when using his principle. He basically explained, destroying peoples stuff is not a way to increase wealth for a society at large which is really just common sense.

[equsnarnd]

Hmmm, ya, kinda. You might say that Bastiat's argument of zero sum is a strong one while yours of negative sum is a weak one. Both are right (Bastiat's in fact and yours in potentiality) but Bastiat may not have wanted to leave the strong case and muddy the waters with the the weak one. The strong argument is obvious and requires no assumptions while the weak argument requires that we make assumptions that ain't necessarily so. After all the glazier might have gone on for a walk.

[machaeroguy]

@GuardofLiberty Right on...I'm just introducing the possibility that the baker might not have the cash on hand to repair the window, for whatever reason. Then the window just stays broken. This scenario would be more realistic perhaps if we were talking about more serious damage i.e. fire, tornado, etc.

[Omroon]

Very very good, congratulations.



[1kings1918]

Exceptionally well said.