Henry Hazlitt
Every government economic policy promises to help a specific group in the short term, but almost all of them secretly destroy the long-term prosperity of the entire society.
The broken window fallacy reveals that destruction and war never create real economic demand or wealth, as they merely divert resources away from genuinely productive industries.
Government-funded public works do not magically create jobs, because every dollar spent by the state is a dollar forcibly extracted from taxpayers who would have otherwise spent or invested it.
Tariffs designed to protect specific domestic industries end up punishing consumers with higher prices and destroying efficiency, ultimately making the entire nation poorer.