France’s socialist approach to governance has caused the country’s GDP to flounder in recent years. To give their economy a manufactured boost, the French government recently ordered 2,000 new trains to replace existing –and perfectly functional– units. The modernization effort in socialist paradise has been stymied by human error. Reuters reports that France’s RFF gave the wrong railway dimensions to SNCF, the group responsible for ordering the trains.
Frederic Bastiat, a champion of free market economics, warned his native France against this type of economic approach. In 1850 he coined a term used frequently by advocates of less government interference in the marketplace. Bastiat’s “broken window fallacy” decisively proved that destroying assets so that money can be spent on their replacement does not cause economic growth nor increase societal wealth.
Because of France’s dirigisme, politicians are deluded into thinking the GDP will be doubly boosted now that train stations must be rebuilt to accommodate the newer, wider models. However, the French state can hardly afford this given their current budget deficit. Countless millions will be spent on nothing more than proving France can still produce something.
Renovation on France’s train stations have already cost the country 80 million euros ($110 million). Hundreds of other stations are still waiting to be fixed, while the French government continues to point fingers at each other for causing the error.
[about_faith]
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