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"Economic upsides" are directly related to the values assigned. If no value is assigned to death and trauma, it's quite possible that a net positive is recorded by knocking down a bunch of old building and highways and rebuilding them.

However, if we decide to jump-start economic development by knocking down infrastructure and rebuilding it, I'd suggest we make sure buildings and freeways are empty of human beings first.

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The bigger issue is that these typical “post-crisis infrastructure spending results in massive economic gains!” stories ignore the opportunity cost of spending that money on repair rather than something else.

Committing this mistake can result in very unfortunate conclusions, such as breaking windows leads to economic growth.

"Our economy's in the toilet, we should start another war to stimulate spending!"

i think that sums up american history since the great depression.

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