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> The German people are better off subsidizing other Europeans to buy their cars, like Ford did with their workers. To me this sounds a bit like the broken win
by wsc981 4y ago
> The German people are better off subsidizing other Europeans to buy their cars, like Ford did with their workers.
To me this sounds a bit like the broken window fallacy [0]. That it’s good if sometimes a window gets broken, because it generates economic activity. But this ignores the fact that economic value was destroyed in the process.
Those subsidies could be used in other ways as well, perhaps by helping startups grow.
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[0]: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parable_of_the_broken_window https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parable_of_the_broken_window
- danans 4y ago> But this ignores the fact that economic value was destroyed in the process. Value gets destroyed in the process of using anything, so much that we have a special word for it: depreciation. Cars and other machines will wear out after enough use. Even more static goods like windows (usually the seals) fail with time and need to be replaced.