It’s already begun!
Economists agree that in the long run, a major hurricane or other natural disaster can actually help lift economic activity because of insurance payments and federal assistance…
Source link: http://archive.mises.org/8451/broken-windows-and-gustav/
Broken Windows and Gustav
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Destroy us all into prosperity!
A joke that never gets old.
I love the statement “Economists agree….”
Surely there must be an economist somewhere who disagrees.
Which stupid economist did they name?
Which “economists” would these be?
The lack of a distinction between wealth and income persists, while the current and future losses of income from the capital destruction and lost labor time remain unseen.
…proving, yet again, the necessity on the part of libertarians to discredit gdp as a valid measure of economic growth.
Just put this forward as another excuse for governments to use for ignoring global warming! “Well, gee, even if it happens, it’ll be good for the economy! Reconstruction will galvanise the economy, and our policy of Masterful Inaction did the job!”
I wonder what the insurance companies think of the broken window fallacy.
If anyone would like to try to set Mr. Chris Isidore of CNN Money straight you may email him at chris.isidore@turner.com
But, go easy on him as it seems his primary function is to write a “sportsbiz” column: http://money.cnn.com/commentary/column_sportsbiz/
This is really the most fallacious and persistent idea I’ve ever encountered. Wasn’t this already addressed 300 years ago?
Do we have to go over Lamarckian evolution again? Is flying to the moon possible with gunpowder?
Etienne de la Boetie discussed voluntary servitude 400 years ago, but sadly we still engage in it as well.
I would settle for the broken window fallacy as the most fallacious and persistent idea if we could get rid of the even greater evil of our enslavement via taxes on property and our labor.
Justin, you are, of course, correct.
And thanks for the tip, I’ll have never read “Discourse of Voluntary Servitude”.
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