Why We Shouldn't Throw Bricks In Our Neighbor's Windows

Hello there, today, I'm doing an essay for my school. It is about, as you have probably guessed, why we shouldn't throw bricks in our neighbor's windows. I was given the following scenario, and question:

C.C. Coalback throws a rock into his neighbor's window, then argues that he is improving society. His neighbor will have to pay $100 for someone to fix the window. He argues that no money is lost in the community, because the window repairer owns the money, instead of the neighbor. He also argues that the neighbor has a brand-new window. The neighbor has certainly lost something, but has society?

(This comes from the Life Of Fred math book series, and it inhabits the realm of the... strange. So, expect many of the arguments given in this essay to be a bit strange! =])

I would say that society has certainly lost something. The first thing is that people may be injured by the flying bricks. The second is that if people start breaking windows everywhere to "improve society", there will be glass shards everywhere, and people's feet would get cut, and their shoes would wear out faster. The third one, is that if people start breaking windows everywhere to "improve society", everyone else will be impoverished because they keep having to pay for new windows, and the window makers will be rich from having such a huge market. So, breaking windows certainly does not improve society.

Imagine, you're sitting in your home, reading, browsing Facebook, or just relaxing, and a brick comes through your window. If the brick hits you, you may be seriously injured. Or, if you're walking near the thrower, you could walk in between the window and the brick, and be hurt when the brick hits you. Either scenario is not good!

Or, you're walking on the sidewalk. You walk under a window, and a brick flies through it, showering you in glass. When you get home, you discover scratches all over your shoes, and even a piece of glass stuck in the rubber (or foam) of the sole. Or, you're walking out barefoot to get the morning paper, and you step on a shard of glass and need to go to the ER, and get stitches in your feet. Throwing bricks in windows is supposed to improve society?!

Then, when the bill comes, you realize that because you have had to pay for so many windows in the past few weeks, that you are short on cash, and that you'll have to sell your car to pay to replace the window. You struggle with debts, and more and more bricks flying through your brand-new windows doesn't help. Meanwhile, the window makers are rolling in cash. An economic system that upsets the balance to one individual, or group of individuals, is not a good one.

A society like that doesn't sound very good, does it? People injured by flying bricks, people drowning in debt because they have to pay for windows to be repaired, so they can be broken again. No, C.C. Coalback, you are not improving on society.