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Murdering People in the Third World
The broken windows fallacy of economics has often been discussed in these pages, but it does not go far enough. First, for those who are new to Ricochet or only read the funny stuff, the broken windows fallacy is the thought that all types of economic activity are equal. So, a restaurateur who has a brick thrown through his window has to hire people to replace the window. This is good, because he is spending money, right? Except that this is spending money that would have otherwise gone into the economy in higher value ways. Maybe he could have hired an executive chef to make his food better. Maybe he could have afforded to buy higher-quality meats. Maybe he would have used that money as a down payment on a delivery truck. Maybe he could have invested in stocks for a start-up that would have invented and marketed the next great thing. Whatever the restaurateur would have done with his money, it’s not going to happen now, because he is buying a new window and paying to have it installed. Besides his costs, that window and work installing it could have gone into a new commercial building instead of to repairing his building. Everything cascades from there. Windows may cost more because of higher demand. Installation may cost more because of higher demand. What we see of lost opportunity costs is merely the tip of the iceberg in what is lost to the overall economy because someone decided to throw a brick through a window. And we recognize that all types of economic activity are decidedly not equal.
Now, let’s multiply that by a million times by having riots across the nation. While we are at it, let’s deliver pallets of bricks to shopping areas to ensure the rioters have plenty of ammunition for breaking windows. Let’s also deliver supplies of Molotov cocktails to those same areas to ensure stores can be burned after being looted. (This is seriously happening.) Many of the businesses are not going to replace the window and move forward, because it’s not just one broken window they have. Some have been looted and others have been burned to the ground. While some may rebuild, many will not bother. Keep a store in a bad neighborhood that is prone to riots? No, thanks; it costs too much. Insurance rates will be up. Jobs are lost. It costs more for people in the riot-torn neighborhoods to reach the stores that are in another neighborhood, either until stores are rebuilt in their neighborhoods or until West Texas freezes over.
But that is not where this ends. The United States, while dancing on the economic brink as it may be, is still an extremely wealthy country. Our poor people have enough food to be fat. We do not only have a United States economy, though. We have a world economy. As jobs are lost in the United States and goods go unbought, factories in the Third World shut down, and the employees are set free of having to work for a living in countries where the choice is work or starve. And make no mistake: some of them will starve. And while it is difficult to trace the path of causation of that starving person in some hellhole country, it started with rioters in the United States burning down our places of work, our jobs, and destroying our wealth.
There are thousands of stories that could be told. A bookstore went up in flames in the Twin Cities during these riots. It was full of first editions, signed first editions, out-of-print books, and they have all gone to smoke and ash. We are all poorer this day than we were yesterday. Not just the Twin Cities, not just the United States. The whole world. Some of our history has been destroyed, never to exist again. We can’t take those ashes and reassemble books from them. Even if the insurance pays to rebuild that bookstore, the owner cannot replace that burned stock. Those special items no longer exist. But probably, it’s too much heartache to bother rebuilding, and all his employees will have to scramble to find new jobs, if they can. And at a hundred or a thousand removes, a few more people starve in the Third World.
The rioters are burning our past. They are destroying our wealth. They are leaving us with no future to look forward to. And they never count the cost. They only look forward to the glorious revolution that will fix everything in the future. They do not see that they are destroying the most glorious of all revolutions, the one that has lifted more people out of poverty than any other. That was the revolution of private property and free markets. They spit upon it and call it evil capitalism. But it is the only revolution that has brought evolution, true change. It is the only revolution that has brought fat poor people. It is the only revolution that has brought poor people with two cars in their garages. Yet, they have been taught that the private property and free-market revolution was bad, because although everyone is wealthier, the wealth is distributed unevenly. It does not accord with the Gospel according to Marx and Engels. (Where did Engels get his money again? Oh, yes, exploiting the working class in textile factories. “Do as I say, not as I do.”)
They are not revolutionaries; they are thugs, thieves, and murderers. They are regressionists. They want to take us back to the age of autocracies. They may call their czars something else, commissars and high party officials. They may give their czars titles such as General Secretary of the Communist Party or President of the People’s Republic, but the czar is still the czar. They are true monarchists, and they aren’t even smart enough or educated enough to know it. And when their day comes, they will wonder why they are now the targeted other. “If only the Czar General Secretary knew!” they’ll exclaim. But their General Secretary does know. They were expendable tools all along.
But there are some who see all of this. There are some who understand the effects these looters and rioters are having. But when we call for a whiff of grapeshot, the governors and mayors mostly ignore us. Our betters know better. They shall get out in front of the parade and lead it. Philippe Égalité tried that, too. It led to his introduction to Madame la Guillotine. So it will end for these Progressive office holders when the revolution comes. They should have tried the whiff of grapeshot.
Those who study history are doomed to repeat it, too, because everyone around them doesn’t pay attention to the history or thinks they are special and can “get it right” this time. The particular doom of those who understand history and how it applies to today is that they know what is going to happen and have no power to influence it. It is like watching a situation comedy where one knows what the character is about to do is stupid and will have ill effects, but the character cannot hear our advice as we yell at the television or movie screen. He goes ahead and does it. So it is with our leaders.
We who see the true costs, who see people starving in a year or two in countries that Antifa members cannot name and shall never care about, we know the true cure for all of this: “Looters will be shot. Survivors will be shot again.”
Published in History
I always thought the broken window theory is that if a place looks like a slum, people will treat it like a slum.
That’s the broken window theory of policing. He’s referring to the broken window theory of economics.
This is the answer to those who say, “You can replace buildings but you can’t replace lives.”
As Judge said, different things. The Broken Window Fallacy in economics was from a parable used by Bastiat in 1850. Broken Windows Theory is from 1982.
People have lost their lives, too.
@zafar, my respect and admiration for the Gurkhas knows no bounds. They begin training in the cradle. They are badass personified.
I got a training session from a Gurkha on sentry take-down with a kukri. Approach from behind, never look directly at the target, he’ll feel your eyes upon him (this is a maxim for stealth worldwide). Take a 45-degree insertion step, slash the hamstring with your forward slash. Loss of the tendon will cause the sentry to start falling backwards, hit the neck on the backswing. You’ll usually (according to my Gurkha trainer) take the head.
I love their warrior ethos so much, it makes me a little teary, sometimes.
@drbastiat doesn’t look that old in person – trust me . . .
True, but like the impacts of the virus, even material things have value that should be balanced against lives. These rioters who loot and destroy without care have devalued their lives to the point it wouldn’t surprise me if the National Guard got “shoot to kill” orders . . .
I listened to a podcast yesterday but had to leave off when the woman stated, ‘looting is grieving.’ Jeepers cats.
Were I a governor/President…
It should be grieving time for the families of the looters.
A prof of mine knew some Falklands vets, and one of them told how their unit had Gurkha scouts. There was an Argentine emplacement on a ridge, with a plan to take it with some support in a few hours. The Gurkha was sent up to, well, scout. He came back shortly thereafter with his report, including that he had dispatched one of their sentries. He didn’t say how. Nobody asked.
Come morning they found out anyway, and that this had so utterly terrified the rest of the emplacement that they had fled in the night.
Gurkhas good medicine for what ails the enemy.
I’d say we are on step 13.
I’d also say that there are two noted features of the current situation, along with the recent past, that this chart does not openly detail.
Item One: Since 2016 at least, the various alphabet agencies have surveiled Donald Trump. Not legally done, but illegally. Those of us who want a free Republic have been quite angry and upset over this surveillance, and the participation of those agencies that supposedly keep law and order, respect for free elections, and help ensure a secure society.
Then came the Russian collusion charges. Again the various agencies that supposedly exist to ensure a free society participated.
Item Two: The media has been complicit in all of this. It has advanced each and every one of the monthly or quarterly memes of the Leftist, Soros/Clinton leaders. From the women’s marches of Feb, March 2017, to the demand that Civil War statues be brought down, to the demand that no one in America should possess any fire arms, to the demands of accepting gender displacement and re-assignment, even to the point of “experts” insisting a three year old knows with certainty that they want out of their gender and of course the more recent demand that we shelter in place with masks on our face when we venture out, due to the media-created COVID hoax, we see again and again the media’s complicity.
Remember as well that it is common knowledge that many of the Talking Heads and/or the writers and editors behind them are CIA and you see a terrifying picture.
Also we have all known since Ed Snowden stepped forward circa 2013 to announce the vast surveillance of Americans and that much data and information has been tracked and collated.
If the CIA, and NSA were not in on this unrest, why hasn’t the NSA demanded an accounting of who and where the insurrection’s leaders are right now?!? The information is all there, stored in countless data banks in that huge conglomerate of a data and intelligence gathering site in Utah. This is very scary, people.
If anyone ends up being tracked, I suspect it will be those of us who are in the center of things politically, as we are, in the view of those people who control things, “Right Wing Extremists.” When Tucker Carlson wears the label of RW extremist and White Supremacist, it is easy to see how badly this could turn out for everyone here except Gary Robbins.
@skipsul Yes. The Gurkha scout had very thoughtfully put the heads of the sentries on the chests of their corpses. ‘Cause that’s the Gurkhas; they’re givers.
Bonus points for being so tidy about it.
Bingo, we have a winner!
Corporate America is so emasculated and spineless, they will do everything in their power to appease whatever the social agenda of the week is. If they raise rates (because come on, who wouldn’t want to build in a lawless war zone?), then they look racist.
“We hear at So and So Inc. of America just want to let our employees know, that we do not tolerate racial prejudices of any kind. We also support the rights of minorities to voice their concerns and we recognize the injustices they face. Therefore, in response to current events, we will not be altering rates in areas affected by the current unrest. We believe that this would only further hurt those who have been historically oppressed and blah, blah, blah….”
Cue massive government bailout checks in a week or two. The same worthless socialists who were against Too Big To Fail remain silent.
It would be a tough order to give, but . . .
And apparently have a killer fashion sense . . .
It would just play into the hands of the communists that are orchestrating the riots. The correct action is to round up the terrorists and ringleaders and the riots will simply cease. We have to be smarter, and use good policing and intelligence rather than merely brute force.
Sure, if you go and put it like that.
@Arahant, this is a brilliant post, but you lost me at the “whiff of grapeshot.” For anyone who doesn’t know, grapeshot is a deadly antipersonnel artillery projectile. Imagine a shotgun scaled up to a cannon.
Last night, David French posted an article at The Dispatch (behind the pay wall). In it, he explains that our military personnel have been trained to quell violence with little or no loss of life. Here’s a slice:
His piece also links to an NRO article he wrote back in 2018 in which he argues that America’s troops are better trained and more disciplined than are many of our police officers:
Unfortunately, we’ve seen much on the streets of our cities these last few days that back up French’s claims. Reportedly, police assaulted 76 journalists in the last four days of May. There are plenty of other reports of police officers attacking bystanders and even people sitting or standing on their own front porches. Too many officers seem bent on getting every last American into the streets to protest their tactics.
Their actions will do little to end the distrust that has long existed between the police and the communities that they’ve sworn to protect. Slaughtering hundreds of protesters with grapeshot is not something to even joke about.
It was Carlyle’s phrase on the action that restarted Old Boney’s career.
Bishnu Prasad Shrestha was riding the train home after having retired from the Indian Army. Forty miscreants decided to rob that train. They got about 200 cell phones, plus laptops, wallets, purses, jewelry, and what have you. They got Shrestha’s stuff too; hey, it’s just stuff.
Then, a few of them started messing with an eighteen year old girl’. She looked at Shrestha and spoke to him.
“You are a soldier, please save a sister.”
Well, hell.
So, Shrestha stood up, took out his kukri, and got busy.
Three dead. Eight wounded. The rest making Roadrunner clouds to the horizon. They were so desperate to get away, they dropped the loot.
Sorry, should have used the words “looters and rioters.” Yes, I’ve heard the phrase. Thomas Carlyle used it to describe Napoleon’s use of grapeshot to defeat royalist troops. What I’m suggesting is that even an allusion to the use of a weapon that would indiscriminately kill rioters, looters, protesters, and innocent bystanders during a period of unrest and mutual suspicion is unwise.
But I think he said “whiff of grape.”
It’s been a long time since I took Modern European History, but I think Napoleon used the grapeshot to break up a mob and save the assembly.
Save?
Don’t know without going to the original source. Wikipedia has “whiff of grapeshot.”