Den evigt aktuelle Bastiat, igen

Don Boudreaux:

If job creation were paramount, then government should not only continue to prohibit supermarkets from selling wine, but should require that bottles of beer, wine, and spirits be hand-delivered to retailers, one at a time, while cradled in the arms of carriers each pulled though the streets in a rickshaw.

Boudreaux missar att hänvisa till Bastiat, men den fascinerande aktuelle fransosen har självfallet redan täckt in feltänket i fråga - ur Economic Sophisms:

But if Bordeaux has a right to profit from a break in the tracks, and if this profit is consistent with the public interest, then Angoulême, Poitiers, Tours, Orléans, and, in fact, all the intermediate points, including Ruffec, Châtellerault, etc., etc., ought also to demand breaks in the tracks, on the ground of the general interest—in the interest, that is, of domestic industry—for the more there are of these breaks in the line, the greater will be the amount paid for storage, porters, and cartage at every point along the way. By this means, we shall end by having a railroad composed of a whole series of breaks in the tracks, i.e., a negative railroad.

Och vidare på Bastiat-temat - Paul Krugman, via A för AnKa:

Ghastly as it may seem to say this, the terror attack—like the original "day of infamy" which brought an end to the Great Depression—could even do some economic good. [...] the driving force behind the economic slowdown has been a plunge in business investment. Now, all of a sudden, we need some new office buildings. As I've already indicated, the destruction isn't big compared with the economy, but rebuilding will generate at least some increase in business spending.

Och Pat Robertson:

(Direktlänk)

Några tidigare inlägg som nämner Bastiat:
- Bastiats krossade fönsterruta gånger två
- Om att göra något för att rädda jobben
- Homer Simpson om jobbskapande
- Den evigt aktuelle Bastiat
- That which is not seen