That Which Is Seen and That Which Is Not Seen

What Hacker News says

1. mothballedJan 2026
   36 people dead is a rounding error compared to mortality from people on the streets due to lack of access to housing. Every time I bring up this topic, someone trots out the Ghost Ship like a broken record, ignoring what I said about the mortality rate of people on the streets because shit rolls downhill when people higher up the socio-economic pyramid go the next rung down in available housing. Bastiat has an excellent writing on this fallacious logic you use, titled "That Which is Seen, and That Which is Not Seen."

   Not having housing didn't work out great for 700+ dead homeless people per year that are estimated to die of hypothermia.

   The code inspectors have blood in their hands. You may be morally or ethically against bypassing the codes, but bypassing it can save lives.

   Black market housing is done for a reason, a very good one, and one that saves lives. Fortunately where I live, I built a house without any inspections whatsoever, so none of the code psychopaths were even around to make their absurd case about the ghost ship, and that is the only reason why I was even able to afford to own a house.

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2. delichonSep 2025
   This is a variation of the parable of the broken window. It is addressed in what may be the most influential essay in modern economics, "That Which is Seen, and That Which is Not Seen."

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

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3. claytongulickApr 2023
   Let's apply the ole reductio absurdum and see how it shakes out.

   Bloat an already obese government by cranking taxes up to 100%, society collapses.

   Put the government on the fasting cure, starve the beast, and most folks end up with more in their pocket and happier.

   How about I add $100 tax to each apple sale? What happens to apple prices? I'd be forced to finally develop a taste for cherry pie.

   How much and who to tax have been arm wrestled over since humans figured out that houses are nicer than caves.

   Cities need both taxes and sewers to survive, but too much of either will stink enough to drive off anyone who can.

   Take a peek at That Which is Seen and That Which is Not Seen [1]. Bastiat had his head screwed on straight for a Frenchman, and had it figured out in 1850.

   [1] http://bastiat.org/en/twisatwins.html

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4. claytongulickDec 2022
   It's one of my favorite reads, That Which Is Seen, and That Which Is Not Seen [1].

   Bastiat was stunningly brilliant.

   [1]http://bastiat.org/en/twisatwins.html

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5. bmmayer1Sep 2019
   Economics:

   - The Wealth of Nations, Adam Smith

   - Das Kapital, Karl Marx

   - That Which Is Seen, and That Which Is Not Seen, Frederic Bastiat

   Philosophy / Politics:

   - The Republic, Plato

   - Second Treatise on Government, John Locke

   - The Law, Frederic Bastiat

   - Leviathan, Thomas Hobbes

   - Meditations, Marcus Aurelius

   - Democracy in America, Alexis de Toqueville

   - On Liberty, John Stuart Mill

   Fiction:

   - The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County, Mark Twain

   - The Story of an Hour, Kate Chopin

   - Metamorphoses, Franz Kafka

   - Candide, Voltaire

   - The Count of Monte Cristo, Alexandre Dumas

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6. hirundoJun 2019
   I vote for this collection of Claude Frédéric Bastiat: https://mises.org/library/bastiat-collection. In particular the leading essay, "That Which Is Seen, and That Which Is Not Seen." It may be the quintessential statement of how to think like an economist. The article includes a popularization of it as "Economics in One Easy Lesson" but here's the original source, free, clear and timeless.
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