The Broken Window Fallacy as seen from my Damaged Computer

If there is anything I can share with you this week, it is the practical economic lessons from the broken window fallacy as seen from my continuing anguish with my damaged computer.

For now, there are two possible alternatives to my computer dilemma: hope that the repair turns out fine and done soonest, or that I may be forced to acquire a new one.

Over the past few days, the activities of my post computer crash life has revolved around

plying back and forth to the repair center by use of cabs,

getting limited access to the web from several internet café

taking meals outside in support of the above

For people who see destruction as a way of prosperity, they would focus on the money I would be spending on the repair center (if repaired) or the retail outfit and the computer manufacturer (if replacement) and the ancillary costs of these activities—taxi fare, computer rental fees and meals from vendors--as helping the economy.

However they would ignore or downplay the impact of my losses.

For me, money spent for either repair or replacement and all of the additional costs would have been money meant to buy a pair of new shoes or a new tablet.

This means that instead of my normal computer AND a new pair of shoes, or my normal computer AND a new tablet, at the end of the day, I would only have a ‘normal’ computer. Or the opportunity cost from my actions to repair or replace the existing damaged computer is a pair of shoes or a tablet. Instead of TWO goods I end up with one. So there is NO value added from the repair or the replacement.

In addition, as I await the verdict of the computer service center, my output has been vastly reduced. I can only make 1 post on my blog, where I usually make an average of 3 per day, and importantly, I wouldn’t be sending any weekend reports to my clients. So productivity has likewise been affected.

[Aside, my savings has allowed me to consider the two options, if I had no savings I would be at a total loss.]

I also have not been on track with what’s been happening on the global financial markets, as I told my principals that I would be ‘trading blind’. Such dislocation has brought me a great deal of distress. You see, the web has altered my way of living such that I have been become greatly dependent on it. This brings about the adverse mental aspects from such displacement or losses.

While these may represent as my personal issues, when amplified as natural or manmade disasters you would notice that destruction doesn’t lead to prosperity. While some economic agents may indeed prosper from such misfortune, the overall the damage would be greater than the peripheral benefits.

Statistics cannot articulate the mental and emotional strains and real productivity and purchasing power losses from the economics of destruction. Be leery of anyone who tells you so.