"Mr. Biden argues military aid to Israel and Ukraine would boost the U.S. economy by "buying American products made by American workers." But using up resources won't make us richer -- especially when they're spent on means of destruction.
Economists call this the Broken Window Fallacy. Physical destruction appears economically creative, since mobilizing the resources to repair the damage creates jobs and employment. This ignores opportunity cost: but for the destruction, there would be a different but no less valuable flow of economic activity.
The fallacy is even more forceful in the case of military spending. Now we're consuming resources with the goal of destroying even more resources. If you've ever heard that World War II got us out of the Great Depression, you've encountered the fallacy in its most dangerous form.
Prof. Alexander William Salter
Texas Tech, Rawls College of Business
Lubbock, Texas" [1]
1. Readers View Biden's Case for Aiding Ukraine. Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y.. 23 Apr 2024: A.16.
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