How Many Congressmen Does It Take to Screw the Country? > The Law of Unintended Consequences

By John Sykes

By Alex Cortes at The Foundry:

The virtue of prudence dictates that one should heed the law of unintended consequences and seek to minimize the unwelcome outcomes that result from almost every endeavor. When one fails to do so, the damaging unintended consequences can be overwhelmingly; oftentimes to such a degree that any rational supporter of the endeavor must seriously consider whether it is worth the pains.

This is the story of Obamacare, literally “the law” of unintended consequences. And tragically, we’re only in year one of its implementation.

Most prominently, President Obama repeatedly promised that “if you like your plan, you can keep it.” However, tens of thousands of Americans have already been forced to change plans, the majority being seniors holding Medicare Advantage plans that Obamacare subjected to dramatic cuts. Starting in 2014, hundreds of thousands more will fall victim given that it is cheaper for businesses to drop employees onto the government-run exchange than continue providing them coverage. Read the rest …

Have you seen the latest on the “mercury bombs” called CFLs, those twisted fluorescent gizmos full of mercury vapor intended to replace incandescent light bulbs? They don’t light well, they last nowhere near as long as advertised, and they require complicated disposal efforts so they don’t poison us!

Unfortunately, one of the extensions of the law of unintended consequences is that the bigger the endeavor, the more terrible and numerous the consequences. The more statist we become, the more will go wrong. Messing with Mother Nature and 2600 page bills are sure to jump up and bite us!