The Broken Window Fallacy

This short video explains one of the most persistent economic fallacies of our day.

Made by Sam Selikoff and Luke Bessey.
See Luke's page: http://www.youtube.com/lukebessey
See Sam's blog: http://lonelyliberal.tumblr.com/

Category:

Education

Tags:

• broken window
• economics
• Austrian
• libertarian
• paul
• krugman

[familyguy350z]

@esimon7188 u really need to read How an Economy Grows and why it crashes by Peter Schiff, it's written for 10yr old so u'll be fine.it doesnt matter what people do with that money. If they spend it that's fine and if they save it that's even better because that money is used to as capital to finance other economic growth! banks can now loan that savings to a person who wants to start a business who then hires people and creates ACTUAL GROWTH. its time to wake up and stop getting brainwashed.

[Hazu1337]

RIOTS!!! WE NEED BIG CITY RIOTS!!!

[danieldefenseM4]

@Hazu1337

Yeah, thats a very peaceful and diplomatic way to go about it...



[jeffiek]

@satoau1 Not a single word in all your blather even attempts to refute the simple fact that the money for the roads was taken from the people by force.

Rather, it is a pitiful attempt to justify that force. Your attempt to justify the immoral blinds you to reality. It must. Your bullshit can't stand up to the light of day.

You ignore that those same gov'ts have killed 10's of millions of people.

So go ahead, enjoy your roads. They've been paid for in blood.

[jeffiek]

@CassAnayadotcom Minor detail

"parable of the broken window was introduced by Frédéric Bastiat in his 1850 essay "

wikipedia. org/wiki/Parable_of_the_broken­_window

This precedes the Republican party.

"employed will spend money in the economy, just the same as if they were employed privately. "

You're conflating money with goods and services.

youtube. com/watch?v=Hrg1CArkuNc

[matt4787]

@CassAnayadotcom Yes. It is true they would spend money in the economy. But the problem is the government has never been anywhere near as efficient at allocating resources as the private market. The government doesn't have to be because it is a monopoly of force.

[CassAnayadotcom]

Wow, this is a big pile of horseshit. Cut taxes, yeah that worked for W. Bush, the economy has been great since then. The public works idea posed Completely ignores those employed will spend money in the economy, just the same as if they were employed privately. This is super-oversimplified, Republican bullshit. Congrats, you all are still irrelevant to intelligent people.

[satoau1]

@aphorism100 no really, they couldn't pay for the roads, seriously learn about how much they cost to build. you're right people pay for roads implicitly, we all share the burden because we all benefit either directly or indirectly in quality of life benefits. society has benefited since ancient roman times by the building of public roads and other infrastructure. there's thousands of years of proof and every day is further proof.

[satoau1]

@aphorism100 businesses can't afford to pay for the roads, these cost millions of dollars to build. if a business big enough built one it could impose fees so restrictive that their competitors would be shut out of the market. public roads allow businesses to start because they don't need the money up front for the road. later the business contributes to the economy and the cost of the road is paid back to the govt.

[satoau1]

@aphorism100 what are you talking about? do you not see the products being driven down public roads every day?

[aphorism100]

@satoau1 They could also pool resources with other businesses that want to exist on the road. Stop taxing people for roads and they can pay a higher premium on products

[aphorism100]

@satoau1 The PC chip maker could pay for the roads to and from their business and adjust costs accordingly. People implicitly pay for roads already in the form of taxes.