15
Jul
2015
Unintended Consequences
My latest FEE article briefly describes five examples of “unintended consequences.” I bet you haven’t heard of all of them.
Before you write and tell me, “Bob, you should’ve included such-and-such,” I want you to reflect on the fact that (a) there are thousands of possible examples and (b) the whole point was to include NON-obvious examples.
(In case it’s not clear, my patience with online libertarians is at a decade-low at the moment.)
-Who’s changed? The libertarians or you? How?
@E. Harding,
My guess? Neither. Chinese water torture. Drip, drip, drip.
“History is not the soil in which happiness grows. The periods of happiness in it are the blank pages of history.” – Hegel.
(Not an endorsement)
Go fudge yourself you communist. Go marry Hegel if you endorse him so much.
You are racist. The Chinese will never forgive you for generations now.
“In case it’s not clear, my patience with online libertarians is at a decade-low at the moment.”
As a little free advice from one online libertarian to another, you don’t need a hyphen there.
Who-gives-a-fudge-you-piece-of-buffalo-dung.-How-dare-you-bring-up-such-a-trivial-matter-when-crap-is-hitting-the-fan-around-here.
Do I get something for already knowing 4/5 of them?
An “I told you so” from Murphy?
4/5 aka 80% is a B minus. You get nothing for that. Your parents will throw you out of the house in shame.
Darn, so close.
I also got 4/5, but I don’t think the environment matters.
So, a perfect 4/4 for me.
Excellent article, Murphy!
The only one I heard before was the seatbelts. Same gripe I have is with football and hockey athletes dressing up like gladiators, which has had the result of players turning themselves into dangerous projectiles, with concussions, and other injuries having increased.
If you go around in the real world saying such things, people will bash your skull in and accuse you of wanting children dead. Most of them are not interested and will shame you out of your workplace.
I haven’t bought cocaine recently – and by recently I mean ever – but how much does $20 really get you? Isn’t it a lot more expensive than that?
(sigh) typical ivory tower academic elitist who has no knowledge of the real world 🙂
No knowledge of anything except killing elephants to build those shiny white towers.
Daniel, you can go to the moon with rock for just $10. That’s less than a pack of smokes in NYC.
It get’s you about 100 cokes on sale if that’s useful to you.
This was before QE 2, Daniel…
Bob, I have heard of all of these. In fact I would be surprised if anyone coming from the Mises/Rothbard libertarianism hasn’t come across those examples. I don’t understand what you mean about patience for online libertarians.
I do.
Fill me in, Major.
He has to ask the Colonel for permission first. He might get demoted to Private if he tells you.
BS Grane Peer. *I* hadn’t heard the state-based fuel economy one until 6 months ago, and I study energy policy for a living.
(I’m not saying you personally never heard of it, but your claim that this is all standard Austrian stuff is patently ridiculous.)
Uh-Oh, Bob, I am sorry. I wish I could say how I know any of this, pointing to a particular article or speech but I can’t. It is possible that I am conflating similar arguments, I’m not sure, they just seem very familiar to me. I didn’t mean that everyone should know about any particular studies but it looks like that is what I wrote and I will not defend my previous comment except to say that what I wrote isn’t what I meant and I am ashamed at my inability to express myself clearly.
It’s OK Grane, on the bright side, you’re the first person in human history to apologize on the internet.
Maybe it will start a trend(holds breath).
Hey Grane Peer,
The fuel economy one is based on a 2012 (!) journal article, referring in the Abstract to “recent” policy initiatives and their unintended consequences. So you’re saying the whole libertarian community has digested this in the last 3 years? That’s amazing.
I see all unintended consequences before they happen.
Bob,
I read an article a few years back about some of the perverse incentives created by CAFE standards that dealt a lot with how the “fleet” qualifier enabled auto companies to game the system in various ways. I’m not sure if they mentioned state by state leakages specifically, and I think this was all theory (in other words, it was phrased as “based on the incentives, we can expect X to happen” rather than “a study has indicated that X is happening), so I don’t think it’s entirely unreasonable that someone has heard of this, even if the actual study done on it is fairly recent.
Nice article. Thanks for writing and sharing.
Z’s drunk again.
Not drunk. High. High on recklessness and Oreos.
Z sucks the marrow out of the bone of life.
And then hand the bones to Major.Freedom to make bone soup.
That one is going in the vault for future burns.
“Online libertarians” is the new “internet Austrians.” Libertarianism has reached peak hipster.
Bob, a lot of other bloggers just say something to the effect of, “Those are the examples I chose to focus on in my new article. What are your favorite examples?”
The allows you control the “Hey you should’ve included…” aspect while helping you avoid acrimony toward your readers. Kinda/sorta/maybe?
Bob, a lot of other bloggers just say something to the effect of, “Those are the examples I chose to focus on in my new article. What are your favorite examples?”
What next, RPLong? Shall I use a winky emoticon?
What does it profit a man to gain the world, if he loses his soul?
Bob,
The information and the message it sends is appreciated. There are a lot of us who enjoy your articles but seldom take the time to pop in and say so.
Z, please buy Bob a beer–or whatever it is you’ve been having.
Is Murphy suggesting that he cares so little for our feedback that the mere implication he might be interested in our opinions would be the equivalent of selling his soul?
😉
“Humor is the only test of gravity, and gravity of humor; for a subject which will not bear raillery is suspicious, and a jest which will not bear serious examination is false wit.”
— Aristotle
😉
^^ Note the winky.
is that finding on seatbelt still current? there are conflicting studies i think. einav has written something, saying the counterintuitive effect is very small
I got 2/5 (the first two). Yay me!