Bastiat’s broken window parable makes the print, but not the online, version of the N&O. National Review Online editor, Jonah Goldberg uses Bastiat to explain the Cash for Clunkers program here.
That Washington is shocked by the news that Americans like getting free money shows how thick the Beltway bubble really is.
Like
the drunk who only looks for his car keys where the light is good,
Washington can only see the economic activity it has created, not the
activity it has destroyed.Besides, maybe some people would be smarter to buy a savings bond or
max out their kid?s college fund or ? here?s a crazy thought ? buy
health insurance. But instead they?ve been seduced into spending the
equivalent of their six francs on a car they don?t really need.
