Unintended Consquences

In the Twelfth Century, an abbott named Bernard of Clairvaux is believed to have coined the proverb, "The road to Hell is paved with good intentions."


Today, the concept behind this very wise insight is often referred to as "the law of unintended consequences."


'Unintended consequences' are results from a given action that are other than what that action sought to produce. These are not coincidences, but direct causes and effects, and they often over-ride or exceed their actual intent.


The Founders of the United States of America understood this concept very well, which is one reason why they worked very hard to write a Constitution that very clearly specified for the federal government a set of enumerated powers as well as very clear limits to what the federal government may do. This in turn limited the harm that could be inflicted, as is inherent in any form of government.


Today, the perils and harm inflicted by the over-bearing and tyrannical governments that the Founders referenced have become dim memories or forgotten altogether, and even recent examples of tyranny are dismissed as 'not possible here', and many people have abdicated their duty as free people to monitor their government against the enumerated powers and limits of the Constitution. As a result, the federal government has been by default allowed to far exceed its constitutionally-enumerated powers and limits, and usurp the powers reserved to the states and The People, and the law of unintended consequences has become the law of the land.


Thus, we stand on the brink of tyranny and chaos.


A few examples:


Minimum wage or "living wage". 


Good intention: 


Prevent exploitation, raise economic status of unskilled and entry workers.


Unintended consequences: 


Fewer jobs for unskilled and entry workers, reduced benefits, less availability of on-the-job training, more illegal hiring and exploitation, economic status of intended beneficiaries is not improved, etc.


Methyl tertiary-butyl ether (MTBE) gasoline additive.


Good intention: 


Make gasoline burn more cleanly, producing less air pollution.


Unintended consequences: 


Existing storage tanks could not contain highly-toxic MTBE, and it leaked out into the watershed and reservoirs, poisoning drinking water (some areas had to find alternate sources of water); having to replace storage tanks with new MTBE-impervious ones that cost hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars per station, putting a large number of independent gas stations out of business, which in turn handed the market to the oil  company-owned stations, which reduced competition and raised pump prices; accelerated wear on motors; reduced  milage, negating the benefit, etc.


Gun control and confiscation laws.


Good intention: 


Prevent violence, murder.


Unintended consequences: 


Criminals become disinhibited from preying on presumably unarmed law-abiding citizens; violent crime and murder increased; innocent people, usually the weakest among us, are rendered unable to defend themselves; law-abiding citizens are made felons and lives  ruined because they unwittingly run afoul of  any of thousands of constantly-changing arcane and unclear prohibitions and restrictions - that are almost all in violation of the First Amendment, (I know someone who was made a felon  this way, and my unarmed cousin was murdered in his house), etc.


Community Reinvestment Act, Fannie Mae.


Good intention: 


Create opportunities for home ownership, and easier access to home ownership, particularly among people of middle and lower economic status.


Unintended Consequences:


Forced banks to lower lending standards in order to meet mandated loan numbers in certain communities, which spread into the broader market; banks knew they could sell most of their loans to taxpayer-backed Fannie Mae, thus largely removing risk and incentive to avoid risky lending; the real estate market exploded into an over-priced bubble; investment instruments were created out of these loans in order to create opportunities to indirectly invest in the real estate boom and distribute risk; when the economy slowed down, the price of real estate stagnated or decreased, eliminating the basis for speculation and collapsing the real estate and mortgage markets, and the broader financial industry behind them.


Banning DDT.


Good intention:


Protect birds from damage to eggs due to DDT.


Unintended consequences: 


Malaria-carrying anopheles mosquitos, to that point under control by DDT, proliferated, taking worldwide deaths due to malaria from near eradication, about 3,000 cases per year, to 2 to 3 MILLION per year, over the period of the ban amounting to about 60 million deaths, mostly children and the weak, exceeding the total death toll caused by Adolf Hitler's perverse ambitions. As it turns out, the ban was based on sloppy science and misrepresenting completely contrary lab results, in a book by Rachel Carson, and birds'  survival were never in danger from DDT.


Of course, every such outcome spawns a whole new set of voluminous laws, regulations, and rules in attempts to solve the unintended consequences without repealing the cause, and the cycle is repeated and exacerbated.


The road to Hell, indeed!


There are many, many more examples, and it's not hard to think of them. And there are hundreds of thousands of laws, regulations, and rules (only a fraction of which anybody, including in government or law practice are familiar with, and thus any one of us could at this moment be a "criminal" without knowing it), all with 'good intentions,' whose unintended consequences we could review, but our time would be better spent kicking out the malefactors and fools in the federal government, and seeing to electing and appointing people to government positions who don't have personal interests in amassing government powers and careers.


The only question is, will we once again rise to our duty as free people and do so?