The author here is essentially describing the classic 'seen vs unseen' problem which Bastiat outlined in his 1850 essay titled "What is Seen and What is Not Seen".[1][2]

[1] http://www.econlib.org/library/Bastiat/basEss1.html

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parable_of_the_broken_window#C...