BasquiatsBrokenWindowFallacy

From Tufte's Economics Classes Blog:

Basquiat noted in the mid 19th century that many people think that it is worthwhile if a vandal breaks a window because it provides work for the window glazier and the glass companies. This is clearly wrong, which is why we don't employ people to break things.

So, with Katrina, the people who will get work in the clean up would have gotten work elsewhere otherwise. That work is now going undone.

People fall for this fallacy because it will be easy to spot the rebuilding in New Orleans, but more difficult to spot the undone jobs all across the country.