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Mises Economics Blog

Are Tornados Good For Growth?

April 14, 2008 4:44 AM by Tim Swanson | Other posts by Tim Swanson | Comments (8)

The broken window fallacy never rests:

Why not spur the greatest increase in capital spending by leveling every city and rebuilding from the ground up? Who needs low-pressure induced hurricanes when you have Buba's wrecking ball service?

Comments (8)

  • Ben

  • Sorry, two minutes was my limit.

  • Published: April 14, 2008 7:30 AM

  • Brent

  • Wow. Morons (with the exception of Peter) is a gross understatement.

    Wars help the economy. Natural disasters help the economy.

    So, pray tell, why do we have police forces to punish theives and vandals?

  • Published: April 14, 2008 2:53 PM

  • Simon

  • How is it possible to reason with people like this? If we shrink the idea down to one person on an island, would these people still say a simultaneous earthquake and tornado would be beneficial to that islander? Obviously our islander would have to rebuild his little hut and perhaps make some new fishing nets, although they may be better than his last ones (because he has had some practice and the others had worn out a bit,) but so what? It is still a net loss. It is like saying 1-1=2.

    Why do they even have unreasonable people like this on the show? Is this what fair and balanced means?

  • Published: April 14, 2008 3:39 PM

  • M E Hoffer

  • sadly, given the state of out Infrastructure, it may be the 'least expensive' option...not that these peep should have been let out ROR..

  • Published: April 14, 2008 5:20 PM

  • Fephisto

  • Natural disasters increasing economic growth?

    So, who's with me in completely ignoring GDP statistics?

  • Published: April 14, 2008 6:17 PM

  • josh m

  • Ha, ha. The ignoramus' "rebuttal" of the fallacy ---is to re-assert the fallacy! Brilliant!

  • Published: April 14, 2008 7:48 PM

  • Cory N

  • 1+1 = 2
    1-1+1 != 2.


  • Published: April 14, 2008 9:51 PM

  • Bruce Koerber

  • To their credit they keep Peter Schiff among themselves, I guess as a counterpoint. Regardless, economic knowledge does get passed along via that route. Is it ego or ignorance or status quo preservation that permits this other rhetoric to be passed off as economic analysis?

    Wisdom is being able to see through all of the monkey-business!

  • Published: April 14, 2008 10:09 PM

  • Yancey Ward

  • As an economic stimulus package, I propose to burn down his house.

  • Published: April 15, 2008 1:38 PM

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