Glazier's Fallacy

tags
GDP

Breaking a window proximately increases GDP: a glazier is paid six francs to replace it. But opportunity costs make it bad for the economy (and society at large): What else might the six francs have been spent on? It might even ultimately decrease GDP because of this economic loss.

From this parable we get the name "glazier's fallacy" for the belief that e.g. war is good for the economy.