how does the purge stop crime and bring economic prosperity?
it seems the property damage alone would not be a good stimulus
"Abortion is green!"
Doug Stanhope
natural disaster tens to bring economic growth in large sizes because everyone needs to build and buy new stuff so there is demand and thus more production and thus more money velocity. Now imagine it on a national level. Futhermore, as stated in the movie its the poor people that get hit the worst, most of whom are actually net negative to the economy.
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The spirit of abysmal despair
Uh, look up 'broken window fallacy' some time.
But it's pretty clear that the schoolgirls won't be stealing candy bars again, which will reduce the crime rate and reduce the money lost by the store through theft, thereby achieving both of those things.
In the real world, most people know where the criminals live, and the law-abiding vastly outnumber them. Few but the most violent criminals would last long in a real Purge.
Futhermore, since the criminals are the ones going out on the purge night, most of the damage is actually criminals killing eachother.
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The spirit of abysmal despair
> natural disaster tens to bring economic growth in large sizes because everyone needs to build and buy new stuff so there is demand and thus more production and thus more money velocity.
That works for single disasters. If the Purge destroys whole city blocks every year, shop owners and home owners won't ever bother to rebuild anything, since it will just be destroyed again next Purge. Even if they are lucky enough to pay tens of thousands of dollars in Purge insurance, and then have to actually do the work to rebuild, and they have to do this every year, the price of staying in business would be too much and stores would never recover.
Look at most war-torn countries. Buildings are bombed and then never rebuilt while the war rages on. Ruined hulks can sit there for years or decades. Only when the war (or The Purge) is over will people bother to rebuild.
> Futhermore, as stated in the movie its the poor people that get hit the worst, most of whom are actually net negative to the economy.
There is a small sliver of an idea there. Yes, if the poor people kill each other off once a year, there are less poor people for society to take care of. But, is it really a net gain? Under the system shown in the movie, poor people now have about zero incentive to work hard and dig themselves out of poverty. Why open a nice little store if it is destroyed every year? Why buy a nice car if it will get torched? Even if The Purge kills off 2% of the poor each year, far more than that are going to give up hope and become a leech on society.
The Purge, as shown in the movie, would never work and never be an economic positive for the country.
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What Would Jesus Do For A Klondike Bar (WWJDFAKB)?