What is Seen and What is Not Seen by Bastiat:

1. The stimulus check. You see the family that spends it and feels relief. You don’t see the worker who not only pays, but earns less because capital was consumed rather than invested — or the prices quietly rising for everyone as money was printed to fund the gesture.

2. The green subsidy. You see the solar plant opening, the ribbon cut, the jobs announced. You don’t see the factory that wasn’t built because that capital was redirected by decree, the cheaper energy that never existed, the industry that moved elsewhere.

3. The minimum wage hike. You see the worker whose wage goes up. You don’t see the worker who wasn’t hired, the hours that were quietly cut, the restaurant that installed a kiosk instead of a teenager.

4. Rent control. You see the tenant who pays less this year. You don’t see the apartments never built, the ones left to decay, the city that slowly stops housing anyone who didn’t get lucky with timing.

5. The bailout. You see the bank, the carmaker, the jobs saved. You don’t see the competitor who ran his business prudently and is now funding his reckless rival’s survival, the moral hazard quietly purchased for next time.

6. The tariff. You see the steel mill that stays open, the union that applauds, the politician taking credit. You don’t see the ten industries that pay more for steel, pass costs to consumers, and slowly lose ground to foreign competitors who don’t carry the surcharge.

7. The government job. You see the bureaucrat employed, the office opened, the program announced. You don’t see the private job that doesn’t exist because the tax that funded the bureaucrat was the investment that wasn’t made. The seen job has a face and a salary. The unseen one was never born, so it has no one to mourn it.

Bastiat’s point, sharp as ever: the bad economist is not stupid – his picture is just incomplete. He counts what is visible and stops there. The good economist counts both sides of the ledger. The politician, by contrast, has every incentive to count only the first and campaign on it…