A functioning economy rarely discards obsolete machinery - instead, it finds better uses for that machinery or its component parts. Sometimes that means melting it down all the way down to scrap metal and then recasting it as other machinery. But sometimes there's a very useful job for that machinery as-is in other markets - for example, that Caterpillar back-hoe that's 30 years old and very out of date in the U.S. may still be quite useful for a construction project in Ethiopia, because the alternative in Ethiopia is a shovel. Or that desktop workstation that's now too slow for a dot-com knowledge worker might be useful fodder for a Stanford grad student's research project in data mining the web.
Or perhaps the most striking example - gasoline was initially a "waste" product from the refinement of petroleum into kerosene. It was kerosene that people wanted, because that could function as a substitute for expensive whale oil in lamps. Well, kerosene and heavy fuel oils that could power steam turbines. It wasn't until the development of the internal combustion engine that gasoline became useful, and that engine was economically feasible largely because gasoline was a cheap waste product of a process that was already in use.
The goal of the economy at large is to take the resources we have available - land, labor, capital, natural resources, and ideas - and convert them into the things that we, as human beings, want most. In rare occasions, that means throwing it out entirely. But in most cases, there's some use for your garbage, and it's the job of the entrepreneur to figure out what that is. I can't really believe that the best use of unemployed people is to have them sitting around on the couch feeling sorry for themselves.
Or perhaps the most striking example - gasoline was initially a "waste" product from the refinement of petroleum into kerosene. It was kerosene that people wanted, because that could function as a substitute for expensive whale oil in lamps. Well, kerosene and heavy fuel oils that could power steam turbines. It wasn't until the development of the internal combustion engine that gasoline became useful, and that engine was economically feasible largely because gasoline was a cheap waste product of a process that was already in use.
The goal of the economy at large is to take the resources we have available - land, labor, capital, natural resources, and ideas - and convert them into the things that we, as human beings, want most. In rare occasions, that means throwing it out entirely. But in most cases, there's some use for your garbage, and it's the job of the entrepreneur to figure out what that is. I can't really believe that the best use of unemployed people is to have them sitting around on the couch feeling sorry for themselves.