[YeGoblynQueenne]

Actually, today an article was posted to HN (not by me) that points to Basquiat's parable of the broken window:

The parable of the broken window was introduced by French economist Frédéric Bastiat in his 1850 essay "Ce qu'on voit et ce qu'on ne voit pas" ("That Which We See and That Which We Do Not See") to illustrate why destruction, and the money spent to recover from destruction, is not actually a net benefit to society.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parable_of_the_broken_window

I think this is relevant to our discussion, in particular the concept of "opportunity costs":

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opportunity_cost

In microeconomic theory, opportunity cost is the loss of the benefit that could have been enjoyed if the best alternative choice was chosen instead.[1]