Frederic Bastiat’s "broken window fallacy" is an economic parable explaining how destroying wealth cannot create wealth and how policies that favor one industry will hurt another. A broken window, for example, may give the glassmaker more business, but the shopkeeper who must fix his window uses money for the new window that he would otherwise use to buy something else--like a new suit. The shopkeeper only has the window (that he paid for twice) instead of a window and a new suit. Henry Hazlitt discusses this fallacy extensively in his Economics in One Lesson.
You might think this fallacy would be easy to avoid. However, as recently as June 11th in Pennsylvania lawmakers were being caught falling prey to Broken Window thinking. The topic here is green jobs.
Jobs in "green" and alternative energy fields are themselves great things—but sometimes they’re like replacing a window with more expensive glass and only benefit the glass industry. Subsidizing green energy specialists means they get work just as the glassmaker does, but overall our society is worse off. Why? Because government support is being given to an industry that cannot sustain itself. Katrina Currie, research associate at the Commonwealth Foundation stated the problem clearly before the PA House Republican Policy Committee by saying that “when government attempts to pick winners and losers—by identifying which industries are ‘green’ or ‘good’ and subsidizing them at taxpayers’ expense, mandating their use, and even punishing their competitors with costly regulations—it hinders our overall economy.”
In Pennsylvania $2 billion in alternative energy subsidies has been spent since 1999, yet the state sits in sixth place for total jobs lost. European studies cited by the Commonwealth Foundation show that for every green job created, 2.2-4.8 jobs are lost. Thus, we have more "green" jobs, but other people losing their jobs results in a net loss of jobs. As Commonwealth’s testimony says, “Jobs created in industries that depend on government assistance are not sustainable, will not stimulate the economy, and will not result in net job growth.” We can’t afford that now, nor can we afford paying $2 billion (at a state level) to keep an inefficient market afloat.
Yes, we must do what we can to attempt to reduce the environmental harm we are inflicting on our planet, but we must be cautious when we let emotions replace sound economics. We must be sure that our green laws are the best policies for all groups.
Emoly West, a former attendee of Eagle Forum’s Collegians Conference, was just crowned Miss Oklahoma 2010. Growing up politically involved, Emoly’s mother, Stephanie, lobbied pro-life legislation at the state capitol, bringing Emoly along in a stroller; her grandmother, Mollie, had actively assisted STOP ERA in Oklahoma and introduced Emoly to Eagle Forum at an early age. In addition, Emoly became involved in Teen Eagles, and attended Eagle Forum Collegians Leadership Summit a few years ago.
Now 24, and having won many beauty pageants, Emoly will represent Oklahoma (and Eagle Forum) in the Miss America Pageant in January. She has tried for the title five times.
“I’ve been looking forward to this moment for five years,” Emoly said during her first press conference. “It’s one of the best pageants in the nation….There was disappointment, but it was also a process of humility.”
She remembers watching the Miss America Pageant with her grandmother on television when she was younger. “I saw women of poise and character,” she says of the contestants. Now, she is among those women she previously watched, as she won the Miss Oklahoma title against 42 other contestants.
However, she remains humble about the process, saying that the opportunity was an honor “not for me, but representing everyone else.”
West is a senior at the University of Central Oklahoma working toward majoring in dance performance with a minor in broadcast journalism. She hopes to become a sports correspondent at the Olympic Games.
Which events in our history have been among the most significant and culture-shaking?
The question usually conjures up grandiose images of Columbus’s first landing, the Constitutional Convention, the Civil Rights’ Movement, or 9/11. However, some of the answers may not be nearly so obvious as you think. Larry Schweikart, a renowned author, historian and one of Glen Beck's favorite authors, outlines the implications of seemingly insignificant events and their lasting implications on our nation in his new book, 7 Events that Made America America.
For example, how did Martin Van Buren’s decisions make the election of Barack Obama possible today? How did Dwight Eisenhower’s heart attack create a government movement for control over American diets? And how did rock and roll ultimately help to bring about the decline of communism and the Soviet Union?
Schweikart discusses all of these and more; history may be much more than you ever learned in school!
Larry Schweikart is scheduled to speak at the 2010 Collegians Leadership Summit on July 14th and 15th in Washington D.C.
