Differing Interpretations
The implications of the fallacy can also be extended to the glazier. The onlookers assume that this needed window will have a positive effect for the glazier, but in order for this to be true, the glazier must currently have time and supplies available for use. If the glazier has other jobs which demand his time and supplies, this additional job now represents a negative constraint for the glazier in that he may not be able to complete his other jobs on time.
In this case, the broken window (and the boy who broke it) did not provide any net benefit to the town, but rather made the town poorer in future benefits by (at least) the value of one window.
Read more about this topic: Parable Of The Broken Window
Famous quotes containing the word differing:
“Journeys, like artists, are born and not made. A thousand differing circumstances contribute to them, few of them willed or determined by the will—whatever we may think.”
—Lawrence Durrell (1914–1991)