The Broken Window Fallacy goes something like this: … if a vandal breaks your windshield, that should stimulate the economy since a worker must be employed to replace it and a new sale is generated for the company that makes and sells windshields.   Hmm… taking it to its logical conclusion implies that if we really want to stimulate the economy, we should encourage riots and arson so that ALL buildings and vehicles in America are destroyed.  What’s wrong with this reasoning? The real truth is that this destruction keeps us from growing.  We have to work to get even to where we were before the destruction occured.  Bloomberg‘s Caroline Baum and Research Reloaded have some great thoughts about how  the Cash for Clunkers program -which involves destroying perfectly good cars before their useful life is ended – is a form of the Broken Window Fallacy. We mentioned Volatire’s saying in another post: “Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities.“  When does the government’s reasoning become not just absurd, but start leading blind believers to atrocities of destruction?