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Excellent point.

When the window is broken, the glazier benefits. The window owner is out the equivalent value of another item or service he might have bought with the money paid to the glazier, as is the potential provider of that other good or service. Calling it a benefit to the economy is disingenuous.

A corollary - when young, our kids would often lobby for buying the more expensive version of something. We’d point out that by buying the cheaper version, there would be $$ left over, with which to buy something else. Or, yeah, that one costs $8 more, but I have other things I’d rather spend that $8 on.

They’re adults now, and both pretty frugal.

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I don’t remember exactly how old my son was at the time. He decided he wanted to pick his own new school clothes for the year. So we had a mall shopping lesson. I told him I had in the budget $200 dollars for his new clothes. In the end he decided he did not need Abercrombie & Fitch. We went to their store and he discovered he could have with $200 one set of clothing and would have to give up underwear. We ended up in Zumiez after shopping around and he found lots of cool clothes on sale. He also bought white tee shirts and borrowed a permanent marker and scrawled designer names on each. 😆

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Regarding glass workers, I recall how law enforcement busted an auto repair shop in the neighborhood. The shop had people who would late at night bust windows on cars parked on the street or take out the outside mirrors to drum up business.

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