WendyMcElroy.com
Prosperity by Replacing More WindowsOf all companies in the world, you'd think that the one whose flagship product is named "Windows" would be aware of Frédéric Bastiat and his "parable of the broken window." (For an explanation of the parable, click here.) Apparently not:
Let's see. 25,000 more IT workers, let's say at a burdened rate of $80,000/year, is about $2 billion burned up just to handle the upgrade to Windows 7. Plus, of course, the cost of the software licenses. That's the "seen" in Bastiat's parable. What is "unseen" is what other uses that $2-billion-plus might have been put to. Like capital improvements. New product development. Or -- dare I say it -- some non-IT jobs.
Bastiat deflated this nonsense over 150 years ago, and it still crops up regularly. (I recall some twit arguing that Hurricane Katrina would be good for the economy.) You don't need Bastiat to realize that if this twisted logic really worked, we could run around smashing windows until we achieved new heights of prosperity.
In fact, smashing windows, while it may benefit the glaziers, is a net loss for the economy as a whole. So it is with needless upgrades to Windows 7. Microsoft will reap big benefits. You won't.
Microsoft Corp. says it won’t be the only one to benefit from sales of its new Windows 7 software. The local economy could see a lift, too.
...Microsoft hired research firm IDC Corp. of Framingham to conduct a study of the ripple effect of the Windows 7 launch. It found that American companies could hire an estimated 25,000 additional workers to cope with the Windows 7 launch, including about 2,500 new jobs in Greater Boston, through the end of 2010.
...Microsoft hired research firm IDC Corp. of Framingham to conduct a study of the ripple effect of the Windows 7 launch. It found that American companies could hire an estimated 25,000 additional workers to cope with the Windows 7 launch, including about 2,500 new jobs in Greater Boston, through the end of 2010.
Let's see. 25,000 more IT workers, let's say at a burdened rate of $80,000/year, is about $2 billion burned up just to handle the upgrade to Windows 7. Plus, of course, the cost of the software licenses. That's the "seen" in Bastiat's parable. What is "unseen" is what other uses that $2-billion-plus might have been put to. Like capital improvements. New product development. Or -- dare I say it -- some non-IT jobs.
Bastiat deflated this nonsense over 150 years ago, and it still crops up regularly. (I recall some twit arguing that Hurricane Katrina would be good for the economy.) You don't need Bastiat to realize that if this twisted logic really worked, we could run around smashing windows until we achieved new heights of prosperity.
In fact, smashing windows, while it may benefit the glaziers, is a net loss for the economy as a whole. So it is with needless upgrades to Windows 7. Microsoft will reap big benefits. You won't.
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