DISQUS

jim · 1 year ago

Great post! :)

dailydollars · 1 year ago

Excellent post! It's really amazing how an action designed to "help" a situation can really backfire. I think it demonstrates how you need to think through things and act slowly. This is true for finances too. I've rarely regretted a carefully thought out financial plan, but have regretted many impulse buys!

Kyle · 1 year ago

The prevalence of unintended consequences is the main reason I generally don't support government intervention in the market. The ethanol story is a perfect example. If congress hadn't dealt out so many subsidies for ethanol producers, there wouldn't have been such a rush to produce it.

Llama Money · 1 year ago

Now if only we can get the government to remove those subsidies.. we'll be back in business. The farmers will have it tough for a bit until they get back to their regular crop production... but they'll manage as they always do. Ethanol is a failure, 100%, plain and simple. Way, way more harm than good...

Sometimes it's best to just admit your mistakes, take your blows, and move on.

Aryn · 1 year ago

Ethanol's not the only problem with corn. Even when used for food purposes, we use too much. I just read "The Omnivore's Dilemma" for an eye-opening look at corn as a food additive crop and the effects of our farm policy.

UH2L · 1 year ago

Ethanol gets a lot of flack for causing these food shortage unintended consequences and it seems to be the focus of the first half of your post, (which I like by the way), but few people put much blame on our meat consumption. You completely passed over...

"From 1990 to 2005, world grain consumption, driven largely by population growth and rising consumption of grain-based animal products, climbed by an average of 21 million tons per year."

To make a pound of meat takes lots more grain and energy compared to us humans consuming the grain, (or other plants), directly. Now that emerging countries are getting wealthier, they're eating more meat too, thereby exacerbating the problem. I read somewhere that the raising, feeding, slaughtering, and transport of one pound of beef uses as much fuel as driving a large SUV 40 miles. If you assume 15 mpg, that's around 2.5 gallons of gas for one 16 oz steak! This stat I read from PETA so you have to take it with a grain of salt. But it is logical.

But this one is from the The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization... They found in 2006 that livestock production generates 18 percent of greenhouse gases worldwide — more than the entire transportation sector of cars, trucks, planes, and ships combined." The only flaw I see here is that transportation is used to move food around.

These are definitely unintended consequences, but now that we know, we can do something about it.
In the face of all this, financial unintended consequences hardly seem worth commenting about.

UH2L
http://www.thingsivenoticed.com

SomeGuy · 1 year ago

Great article! I'd like to follow up on your job example of $60K/nice versus $100K/stressful. An even worse common consequence of taking the $100K job is automatically adjusting your consumption up by 2/3. Then you are effectively locked into that job or at least that pay grade. The feeling of being locked in can be more stressful than a lousy job itself. I know because I was in that situation some years ago. It is not one I ever want to return to. My current job is only "ok", but I took it because it pays quite well and that is helping us accomplish longer-term goals. I can and will walk in a second if it gets worse or becomes a drag in other parts of my life. In the end it boils down to setting proper priorities and goals and then working to achieve them.

Also, stress and unhappiness can lead to divorce which is perhaps the single biggest financial drain of all. It can also be a tremendous emotional drain as I have witnessed far too many times with those close to me.

I also agree with UH2L. At some point we are talking about "butterfly effect". The systems of the world are far too complex to predict cause and effect, and attempting to do so results in analysis paralysis and more stress. I eat steak because I enjoy it and if that hastens the demise of our planet, well, sorry everyone.

Kristi Wachter · 1 year ago

I'm always pleased to see more awareness of the law of unintended consequences, and I thank you for blogging about it.

However, I'm not so sure about the leap from your first Earth Policy Institute quote to the second. The first talks about using residues from grain that's already being grown - in other words, using wasted material (while recognizing that it's not ALL wasted - some of it should stay on the ground to enhance the soil). There's no contradiction between encouraging better use of wasted residue on the one hand, and lamenting the diversion of food for fuel on the other hand.

golfboyyk · 1 year ago

I've been a vitim of unintented consequence from enviroment of ignorance.
I there anyway that we can avoid being vitim again? beside be more awareness.

Ps. No matter how aware we are. The world is full of ignorance.