Though some of them would disdain to say that there are net benefits in small acts of destruction, they see almost endless benefits in enormous acts of destruction. They tell us how much better off economically we all are in war than in peace. They see “miracles of production†which it requires a war to achieve. And they see a postwar world made certainly prosperous by an enormous “accumulated†or “backed up†demand. In Europe they joyously count the houses, the whole cities that have been leveled to the ground and that “will have to be replaced.†In America they count the houses that could not be built during the war, the nylon stockings that could not be supplied, the worn-out automobiles and tires, the obsolescent radios and refrigerators. They bring together formidable totals.
Henry Hazlitt