Seen and Unseen

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"In the economic sphere, an act, a habit, an institution, a law produces not only one effect, but a series of effects. Of these effects, the first alone is immediate; it appears simultaneously with its cause; it is seen. The other effects unfold only subsequently; they are not seen. Between a bad and a good economist, this is the whole difference: one confines himself to the visible effect; the other takes into account both the effect that can be seen and those effects that must be foreseen."

— Bastiat, Frédéric event 1850

menu_book That Which Is Seen, and That Which Is Not Seen

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"As against these popular fallacies there is need to emphasize the truism that a government can spend or invest only what it takes away from its citizens and that its additional spending and investment curtails the citizens' spending and investment to the full extent of its quantity."

— von Mises, Ludwig event 1949

menu_book Human Action: A Treatise on Economics

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That Which Is Seen, and That Which Is Not Seen

person Bastiat, Frédéric event 1850

Famous essay introducing the concept of opportunity cost and the broken window fallacy, arguing economists must consider both immediate visible eff...

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The Broken Window Fallacy

A logical error in economic reasoning first described by Frédéric Bastiat in his 1850 essay

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Survivorship Bias

A logical error that occurs when conclusions are drawn from a data set consisting only of the 'survivors' of some selection process, while overlook...

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