Anyone who has lived long enough to climb onto the school bus without Mommy’s help knows that much of life involves dealing with unintended consequences. Your little six-year old body navigates up the big steps, and whoa! That nasty little Tonya is sitting in YOUR seat. You astutely recognize that you have 4 reasonable options: complain to the bus driver, sit in Tonya’s usual seat, choose another seat, or pummel the snot out of Tonya. Each of those options can lead to a chain of consequences that may be difficult for your fertile six-year old mind to anticipate. The bottom line is that we learn that much of life is coping with unintended consequences…sometimes successfully and other times not so well.
The micro or personal impact of unintended consequences translates more starkly into macro or group settings because the potential number of outcomes grows exponentially when more actors and situations are involved. Thus it should not require an advanced degree in logic for an observer to expect a multiplicity of unintended consequences whenever some bright bureaucratic agency or other government body attempts to craft a law, rule or regulation for all the 310 million people who reside in the United States of America. Foul-ups abound as citizens (and others) scramble to comply with or to avoid the heavy hand of Big Brother.
Possibly one of the most egregious outcomes from bureaucratic over reach can be seen in the Endangered Species Act. Insignificant snail darters and other minor species have enjoyed the comfort of federal government protection while our national economic engine has suffered because of misplaced federal policy. We currently import 70% of our oil needs….a significant portion from nations who resent us and would harm us in an instant if they didn’t want our money. The largest source of our imported energy is Canada…whose environmental concerns are similar to ours, but they do operate their domestic energy production much more sanely than we do. The unintended consequences include higher energy costs for Americans because shipping and transportation add to the bottom line. Because of their bureaucratic misfeasance, thousands of energy production jobs are exported rather than contributing to local economies throughout the United States. Our national security is at risk because of the necessity for energy to fuel our armed forces in times of conflict. A final unintended consequence (there may be others, but I suffer from limited insight) is the division in the caused by such an unrealistic policy. One often has to choose between the ideal and the pragmatic in order to survive. You may love your pet pig, but pork is tasty. You can’t have the pig and eat it too. We can protect the minnow (darter) and harvest the oil or gas, but our heads-in-the-clouds, unrealistic bureaucrats have determined that protected minnows (they are slightly larger than a large paper clip) are more important than the needs of the people of the nation.
If would be great if the snail darter example were an anomaly, but in most government interactions with the people, it is more indicative of the norm. An all-powerful government enterprise assumes that its ability to use force to assure your compliance is enough justification for it to pursue harmful policies. An unthinking, illogical and power hungry institution believes itself to be the source of all knowledge and good. Some might be alarmed that some of our citizens worship at the altar of government. It isn’t all that surprising because uninformed and weak people have worshiped golden calves and other inanimate objects for ever….with similar results as those who worship government….decay followed by disaster. The snail darter is NOT an item of worship, but it does represent one of the vestments of our unholy government.
All government actions lead to unintended and often devastating consequences. The one-size-fits-all policies and programs yield a plethora of consequences throughout our nation. The good intentions of clueless lawmakers and bureaucrats generate multiple disruptions for our citizens.
Snail darters should be used for bait, and we should “drill, Baby, drill.” Please leave us alone. We’ll do just fine.
Comment: cearlwriting@hotmail.com
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.....If would be great if the snail darter example were an anomaly,..... Just a minor typo but a great piece.I love thes two lines "Some might be alarmed that some of our citizens worship at the altar of government. It isn’t all that surprising because uninformed and weak people have worshiped golden calves and other inanimate objects for ever"
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