As sure as camera crews follow natural disasters, so too do stories of how each natural disaster is really actually pretty darn good for the economy. Here (courtesy of my friend Fred Dent) is one of these inevitable explanations of how the Indian ocean tsunami is an economic blessing.
What to say? “Broken Window Fallacy” comes to mind. Or maybe, “Hey! Why not bomb the bejezzus out of American cities to give the U.S. economy a little more of a lift? We can evacuate city-folk to North Dakota for the duration of the bombing, so no one is killed; we’ll merely destroy people’s homes, automobiles, places of work and worship, barista bars, and household pets. (We don’t want to short-change dog breeders and pet-shop owners, of course.) Think of the prosperity we’ll create!
….
Someone ought to write a book bearing a title something like this: An Inquiry Into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations.
