Henry Hazlitt
Government economic policy often promises to help a specific group in the short term, but Hazlitt argues that many such measures undermine long-term prosperity for society as a whole.
The broken window fallacy reveals that destruction and war do not 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 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 nation poorer.