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That parable is misleading. If his window wasn't broken then the shopowner would've invested it in some improvement to the store or as a safety cushion which would also trickle through to the relevant suppliers. We'd actually all be better off if the window wasn't broken because we should have some other investment that was equally valuable without having to lose the asset of the window.



That's the whole point! Reread the opening sentence -- "the money spent to recover from destruction, is not actually a net benefit to society."




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