Great Moments in Unintended Consequences: Traffic Noise, San Fran Contracts, Cartoon Ban (Vol. 15)

Good intentions, bad results.
Watch the whole series: • Great Moments in Unint...
Do you know a great moment in unintended consequences? Leave a comment or email us at [e-mail].
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Part 1: Game Engine
The year: 2018
The problem: Too many loud vehicles in the city of Edmonton!
The solution: Erect sound monitoring display boards in various locations in the city, alerting motorists if they are exceeding the 85 decibel level limit by displaying their current noise level.
Sounds like a great idea, with the best of intentions. What could possibly go wrong?
Turns out games are fun! Since the display board went up as part of a pilot program with no accompanying enforcement mechanism, competitive motorists used the scoreboards… er, displays…to see just how loud they could get. As revving engines increased, so did noise complaints. Within weeks the city reversed course and turned off the displays.
Looks like cars aren't the only things that backfire.
Part 2: I Left My Smart in San Francisco
The year: 2016
The problem: States are passing laws San Francisco doesn't like!
The solution: Pressure them to change by prohibiting any city contracts with companies headquartered in states that don't share San Francisco's values.
Sounds like a great idea, with the best of intentions. What could possibly go wrong?
Turns out, competition drives down prices! With limited bidding options, public project costs ballooned by around 20 percent according to city administrators. The ban also created additional bureaucratic costs, totaling nearly half a million dollars in staffing expenses alone, and made it difficult to support like-minded businesses in verboten states.
More and more waivers and exemptions were granted as the list of covered states grew from 4 to 30, which should have been a clue these expensive pressure tactics weren't exactly changing hearts and minds. In 2023, the city trashed the bans, probably in a very expensive trash can.
Part 3: Tooned Up
The Year: 1903
The Problem: cartoonists keep depicting Pennsylvania politician Samuel Pennypacker as a parrot!
The Solution: Introduce a bill banning any cartoon in which a person is depicted as a "beast, bird, fish, insect, or other inhuman animal."
Sounds unconstitutional, and entirely self interested! What Could Possibly Go Wrong?
Turns out, people who make fun of politicians for a living are pretty comfortable fighting back against politicians. Criticism of Governor Pennypacker and the anti-cartoon bill exploded, with cartoonists nationwide depicting the Governor and others as turnips, trees, chestnut burrs, squash, and beer steins. The blowback was so humiliating that the bill was pulled from consideration, and replaced with a new broader bill making newspaper editors and publishers personally responsible to libel lawsuits.
The press ramped up their ridicule, daring Pennypacker to take them to court. But the law was never enforced, and was repealed after he left office, having been hounded for his entire term by critical cartoons.
That's one way to draw attention.

[@ashirtthatjusthaspantswrit3806]

The last one was more like, “ bad intentions, great results!”

[@genericscout5408]

Ends up when you're elected to office you have to make people like you to stay in office.

[@hanchen267]

Results? More like insults

[@fortusvictus8297]

@@genericscout5408Yeah, but as Plato pointed out better than I ever could: Poets (journalists) with a political agenda are not a public good and can subvert any attempts at a republic over time.

[@0011peace]

@@fortusvictus8297 even more the poiticians who such stupid bills

[@aadlane.]

Sounds unconstitutional! And entirely self-intrested! What could possibly go wrong?

[@sbdyson]

Is it sad that the most surprising thing on this list was that San Francisco actually reversed their bad policy?

[@mechanicalmonk2020]

Yes. It indicates that you've talked yourself into believing certain things that aren't true and you've done this because of blind hatred

[@McIrish_Lad]

@@mechanicalmonk2020 Or it indicates that politicians of all parties in this country have a long history of refusing to admit their policy ideas were terrible once they become codified and seeing the same party that implemented a terrible idea into law being the party to repeal it is all but unheard of in this country.

[@kalebglenn5279]

They didn't even reverse it, they just changed it from "state ban" to "values ban." IF you want to work with San Francisco, you still have to be vetted by them; the main thing that has changed is they no longer discriminate based on your headquarter location.

[@ferrumignis]

@@kalebglenn5279 I note and appreciate your big "IF" 😄

[@ferrumignis]

@@mechanicalmonk2020 What are these "certain things" you believe aren't true?

[@michaellyden2580]

So, the Streisand Effect really should be called the Pennypacker Effect

[@chrismiller5198]

That has a better ring to it.

[@wasabiflavoredcocaine]

I like this

[@thisagame5847]

It's slightly different. Streisand wanted privacy while Pennypacker wanted people to stop making parodies of him. A modern example would be Michel Rosen having his videos used in YTP. He was worried about the videos reaching the wrong audience since he was a children's book author. He tried to get them removed under copyright which made the issue more prevalent. He eventually made peace with the meme creators.

[@charleshetrick3152]

Are you trying to take an achievement away from a woman and give it to a white man!? Cmon son!

[@KolaNutKing]

I hearby rename it to the Streisand-Packer Effet!

[@EZPZ_SoBadItsGood]

Here's a suggestion for a future episode: The story of the "Agricultural Adjustment Act". The time when FDR decided to pay farmers NOT to grow crops, because he felt that food was just too darn cheap. The result was starvation, and those same farmers who he was trying to keep in business by artificially inflating prices, going bankrupt because now animal feed was too expensive and their livestock died.

[@stevenschnepp576]

Don't think that actually was unintended. Just look at what FDR's counterparts did in China and the Soviet Union.

[@JamesTaylor-on9nz]

@@stevenschnepp576 America is a nation of plutocrats, thieves and blood-suckers, so naturally it will never treat its workers, farmers or soldiers well...the people actually keeping the country afloat.

[@LC-uh8if]

@@stevenschnepp576 No, I do think it was unintended in all three cases. Communists are just so fanatical in their idiotic policies that they can't see the obvious consequences.

[@WarpSonic]

what guy with good intentions looks at cheap food and says "dang that's awful we need to fix that" lmao

[@wlan246]

But the government survived, and that's all that really matters...

[@notme222]

**Got one for you Austin:** According to the Institute for Energy Research, the 2022 ban on plastic bags in New Jersey has increased greenhouse gasses from bag use by 500% and earned an average of $200,000 profit per supermarket by selling reusable bags that don't get reused.

[@TheStephenation]

Not sure if anyone has run the numbers for the ban in Washington, but I'm guessing it's also pretty bad.

[@iandick1364]

That's exactly what should be expected to happen. How do they never think of these things?

[@nicholasvinen]

"Unexpectedly!"

[@lkjkhfggd]

That's a shame that people are unable to remember to bring the reusable bag that they bought for the sole purpose of being reused.

[@jonahtwhale1779]

Because they judge a policy by their intentions not the results! It is called virtue signaling.

[@malvoliosf]

Note for the curious: although the transcript says cartoonists depicted Pennypacker as a “chestnut bear”, sadly, it was merely a “chestnut burr”, that is, the tough, prickly husk that surrounds the chestnut seed.

[@travisthompson1679]

Apparently there is a way to make suggestions about that now and potentially fix it. KZbin keeps popping up blue windows telling me about it.

[@rucker69]

this is the kind of pedantry I live for

[@flyoverkid55]

With the staggering number of these " unintended consequences " segments, one might expect that heavy handed government regulators would learn from the historical [ hysterical? ] record. But no.

[@nightrunnerxm393]

If there's one thing historians learn from history, it's that humans don't really learn from history. Or, as Mark Twain put it, "History doesn't repeat, but it sure does rhyme a lot!" There's also an old saying about how stupid people only learn from their own errors, while the wise learn from the errors of others.

[@ekij133]

Unfortunately the government generally doesn't feel the pain themselves for their stupid decisions.

[@mvmlego1212]

This series includes approximately 45 unintended consequences, but they're spread across thousands of governments over a ~300-year period. It's strong evidence that regulations _can_ go very badly wrong, but it's very, very weak evidence that a regulation is _likely_ to go very badly wrong.

[@thisagame5847]

@@mvmlego1212 The series can keep going. Plus bad results are subjective depending on who you ask. I would argue speed bumps have had bad results while others would still desire more. Gun control advocates openly admit gun buybacks do nothing. That does not keep them from continuing to waste money on these events.

[@mechanicalmonk2020]

You're not balancing these with things that go right. These are exceptions, not rules.

[@christianelzey9703]

In Philadelphia's Roosevelt Boulevard, notorious for speeding and racing, several years ago they added individual "your speed is...." displays for each of the 3 lanes. Those just became scoreboards...

[@42ayla]

I saw a better version in cottage country last summer. Instead of flashing that you're going too fast it says 'Thank you' if you're under the speed limit. I'd love to know the stats on that one.

[@seantaggart7382]

​@@42ayla now THAT would work way better

[@wompa70]

That last one didn't even have good intentions. And we see that more and more today, too.

[@jeffreyb.2817]

I think you should do one on Daylight Savings Time. It seems like every time changes, people complain and want the time changes stopped. However in 1974 we actually did stop daylight savings time. People complain both before and after so much that it was stopped then restarted. History is getting ready to repeat itself.

[@Ironica82]

Ya got a video about that? Would be interested in watching it.

[@justsomeguy5498]

Googled it as this was news to me. They actually did the opposite - put everyone on permanent daylight saving time, and yep people hated having to get up to go to work or school in the dark.

[@shavenyak1]

@@justsomeguy5498 I'd love permanent daylight savings time. I'd much rather have more daylight after work than before work. Personally, I go to work in the dark every day regardless of the time of year anyways.

[@stevenscott2136]

Daylight after work is much more useful, if you do anything outside. I'm not going to mow my lawn at 5 a.m.

[@EF-69]

Blech! Waking up & getting moving while it's still dark stinks. The worst is that the time change doesn't achieve anything it's supposed to. It may have been helpful in 1944 when the only electricity most people used was a light or two and we needed all of it to make a couple nuclear weapons.

[@robertnelson3539]

This continues to be the best series on KZbin.

[@isentient666]

I love how San Francisco boycotted itself.

[@benjaminmiddaugh2729]

And inadvertently displayed an incredible belief in the power of corporate lobbying. Why else punish corporations for government action except for an expectation that the companies would lobby to change the law. Also, did they consider that they aren't the only large city in the country? All the companies sent elsewhere would just try, you know, elsewhere.

[@jaredarmstrong7403]

“Did they consider”? The answer is no, San Franciscans, are far too interested in bottling that sweet nectar that emanates from their backside and then huffing it like a fine wine.

[@DanielPearson1]

I love the decibel meter thing, we have something similar in Eugene Oregon, speed boards around school zones and high accident areas, people painted a quarter mile line before the speed trap, and people routinely checked their trap speed quarter mile on the boards, until the cops took them down.

[@ScottPoirier]

I live in Edmonton where this happened. I don't know why it triggers libertarians for a city to do a short term pilot project that's basically trying to find the most voluntary, non-authoritative polite request kindly asking citizens to not be obnoxious dicks with their loud vehicles. Why cheerlead for the assholes waking people up at midnight street racing 2 blocks from their bedroom window. These signs weren't impeding on their freedoms at all. It was just a reminder and some people were twats in response and Reason is blaming the government?

[@stevenschnepp576]

@@ScottPoirier We're not 'cheerleading for the assholes', we're snickering because it always has the same result and you statist types never seem capable of realizing it.

[@AusFirewing]

​@@ScottPoirierIf you're going to put up noise or speed measuring signs you should at least have some base level of enforcement. The show is called unintended *consequences*, not bad intentions.

[@uncaboat2399]

@@ScottPoirier Please take another look at the *Title* of this video ... "Best of Intentions. Unintended Consequences". In other words, never mind about the blame, the issue is they spent taxpayer dollars on a useless toy with the Best of Intentions that had Unintended Consequences.

[@mirzaahmed6589]

​@ScottPoirier found the statist

[@marcusmoonstein242]

Just research any government program that was supposed to "pay for itself". Because anybody who understands business understands that if the program would pay for itself, then somebody would already be doing it as a business.

[@lkjkhfggd]

Well some programs can become self sufficient because a new law creates a need for a service that didn't exist before - and then the government monopolizes on that product. In my home city, everyone has to get an emissions test on their vehicle to register it. Just about any auto services place can get a machine and do an emissions test, but the city only recognizes it if it is done with their machinery, which requires that the auto place buy a license and rent the machine. Since the emissions department can charge whatever they like for those emissions licenses, the program pays for itself.

[@stevenscott2136]

​@@lkjkhfggd In other words, if you're crooked enough, almost anything can be made profitable.

[@thisagame5847]

@@stevenscott2136 The truth is that a good amount of saftey legislation has financial incentive behind it as the actual reason. Teen drivers aren't required to take lessons with a certified private instructor to get a driver's license to make the roads safer. The actual story is that private driving instructors weren't making enough money. The solution was to get driver's education removed from public school while passing the new requirements as law.

[@marcusmoonstein242]

@@lkjkhfggd Of course the program will "pay for itself" when the government can force you to buy the service from a government monopoly AND also set the price for the service at whatever they want. What you're talking about is effectively a tax by a different name.

[@steamnamebbderinvade__]

Then you better start explaining how assertive community treatment, social services, nationlizaing cargo rail, and removing, lead, mercury, arsenic, and zinc does or does not pay for itself; either one is going to be challenging for opposite reasons. Also, Singapore would like a big word with you.

[@SH-ly1uy]

0:39 lol Same Thing happened in my city with scoreboards indicating speed

[@mechanicalmonk2020]

Speed indicators are extremely common and I've never seen them have this effect

[@TheGregamonster]

​@@mechanicalmonk2020that's because speeding laws are enforced. The sound scoreboards didn't come with any penalties for exceeding the limit, so there were no consequences for the drivers when they aimed for a high score.

[@filipporiva1864]

have you ever done a grat moment in unintended consequences with nuclear power bans? like germany shutting down the reactos to satisfy the green party and end up increasing carbon emissions of coal energy?

[@mickeymorgan4672]

And buying more energy from Russia.

[@Bobo-ox7fj]

Like many of these situations, that was in fact the intended consequence - sky high energy prices.

[@williammcquail1716]

And subsequently buying electricity generated by nuclear power from France.

[@RationalEgoism]

I started laughing as soon as you mentioned the decibel meters because I knew what was going to happen.

[@EchoTangoSuitcase]

The first one reminds me of that time they put a breathalyzer in the lobby of the NCO club at Coleman Barracks in Mannheim W. Germany. I don't think it was up for even 10 minutes before people began competing for high score. I don't remember exactly how much time went by before they took it down, but it wasn't long.

[@Styxswimmer]

As a veteran myself, I could definitely see that happening.

[@Adrian_Nel]

Tipper Gore and the (I think it's called) the Parental Advisory label. Every teenager wanted their next music purchase to feature it, and every rapper obliged.

[@dawnstorm9768]

Oh Gawd, I remember that! One of the 1980s moral panics.

[@daffers2345]

Don't forget Michelle Obama and the healthy-eating push years ago. So much wasted produce.

[@azaz8076]

This pissed me off so badly in the mid 1980's that I still remember the congressional clown show around video games & music. Tipper Gore vs Dee Snyder of 'Twisted Sister' mock music fame: kzbin.info/www/bejne/rJbSipapfZyKqNU

[@damiengrief]

One of my favorite series on Reason's YT channel. Good stuff.

[@freethebirds3578]

This series and Remy are the only ReasonTV videos I watch.

[@jdmtssp]

For a future episode, you need to revisit Gavin's pumping of sand into skate parks and the resulting dirt bikes.

[@janofb]

My favorite videos. Sousa music. Carnival barker narrator. Great graphics. Fantastic Stories. Can't be beat. The perfect combination to put a smile on your face.

[@sorenbyl1786]

I totally agree! Do you happen to know the name of the music used in the intro? I have been searching for a while now, but i just can't find it.

[@RealityOrganized]

You covered the 2008 gun buyback in Oakland in Vol 13. Have you done the gun buybacks in: 2013, Seattle. Turned into an open air gun show, where private gun collectors worked the line buying back the guns at higher prices. 2022, Houston, where at least three people manufactured cheap guns to sell them to Houston authorities at a steep profit. 2022, same in New York, where people manufactured cheap guns to sell them to authorities at a profit.

[@notthefbi7932]

The best part about these videos, is you'll never run out of great government intentions 😁

[@jasondashney]

These videos could be 20 minute segments coming out once a fortnight if they really wanted to.

[@annacbrown1986]

The first one was so obvious. I immediately knew that car enthusiast would use it as a scoreboard 🤪

[@tenhundredkills]

It's the same as the speed warning signs. The local police stand them in places where officers can't safely park their vehicles to enforce speeding. So, everyone floors it to see how high they can make it go. Lots of fun!

[@davidanalyst671]

it turns out people who run the government don't have as much common sense as your do.

[@eatabagofdicks6500]

I love the fact that you did enough research to have a car with oilers plates on a story about Edmonton 👏👍

[@user-hm5zb1qn6g]

Yes, but there are no Loblaws-branded stores in Edmonton. Loblaws operates at Real Canadian Superstore in Western Canada.

[@Whatsthatsmell69.]

How about Obamacare where if employers didn’t give health insurance to their employees then they would have to pay a fine and the fine ended up being cheaper than the insurance?

[@weirdredpanda]

Also that employers cut hours to keep their employees under the limit of hours to have to provide insurance, which reduces the paycheck for people, who then can't afford insurance, who then have to pay a penalty for not having insurance. Obamacare only benefitted a very few people.

[@mechanicalmonk2020]

​@@weirdredpandaif by "a few" you mean "literally millions" sure

[@user-hm5zb1qn6g]

@@mechanicalmonk2020 Did you wander over here from The Hill?

[@JeffDeWitt]

Except 0bamaCare DIDN'T have the best of intentions. Its real intent was to so screw up the health care system that people would demand the government fix it, and the "fix" was a government controlled single payer system (that would have been even worse).

[@ZeroToPatrick]

This is my favorite recurring thing on this channel.

[@juancuelloespinosa]

i see unintended condequences, I click

[@nathangerber1547]

“Probably in a very expensive trash can” I’m dying that’s too good

[@mikewurlitzer5217]

Never gets old! Love the narrator's voice over.

[@bcskelly]

At least they repealed that last two. Repealing bad laws doesn't happen nearly enough.

[@jasondashney]

At the federal level, nobody ever admits a mistake. They just blame it on the other guys. I guess it happens even at a more local level. A city can be run by democrats for 40 years, in a blue state under blue governors under a blue president and they will still somehow blame the other team.

[@rosskwolfe]

Reason asked for examples from its viewers. Sounds like a great idea, with the best of intentions. What could possibly go wrong? Turns out, people on the internet like to troll. Commenters suggested a bunch of laws that didn't exist, leading to Reason interns wasting entire *minutes* of time on researching non-existent laws.

[@geraldfrost4710]

"Waste entire minutes" LoL! There are people who waste entire lifetimes on the internet!

[@genius11433]

LOL

[@razorback9999able]

Moral of the lesson: make your own ideas

[@vincent412l7]

Got a source for this?

[@Stuff857]

There was a plan to connect the Californian oil and gas pipelines to the rest of the country. But the state government banned the project as they argued it would 'harm the environment.' Which makes a certain amount of sense until you realize that large amounts of fuel is instead shipped by truck into California because the state is dependent on outside energy resources. This creates a very expensive and very carbon intensive petroleum market in California, ironically in the name of being carbon neutral.

[@daffers2345]

Besides, it's a pipeline. It's not spraying all over the place. Some of them are buried. When the pipes are aboveground, they provide a warm place for animals to come.

[@AaronMichaelLong]

I don't know if any of these policies were driven by "good intentions". Number one: The intention was to spend taxpayer money on noise monitoring equipment. Number two. The intention was to divert voter attention from local problems to problems in other states. Number three: The intention was to use lawsuits to silence political criticism.

[@jasondashney]

The San Francisco one is so gross and so California. You can be on your iPhone made by borderline slaves, and using cobalt mined by small children in horrific conditions, but God forbid another state has a policy on bathrooms you don’t like. Virtue signalers make me sick.

[@jasondashney]

The San Francisco one is so gross and so California. You can be on your iPhone made by borderline slaves, and using cobalt mined by small children in horrific conditions, but God forbid another state has a policy on bathrooms you don’t like. Virtue signalers make me sick.

[@partydean17]

Holy crap i did not know about the san fran thing. Thats insane

[@mikelmart]

It's insane that it even started. Worse is that the state of California requires at least 25% of business is done through small businesses. I used to sell safety glasses to them for .89¢. They got them through another vendor for $9, it was the exact same product.

[@gmanplaysgames256]

Problem: unstable nations get embroiled in wars Solution: spend absurd amounts of money on military aid Unintended Consequence: endless wars for profit

[@vanguard6937]

No no no, those consequences were fully intentional

[@Nihilakh4life]

I assume you are talking about when Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union and the solution being let the Nazi's do whatever, it won't bite the US in the ass later.

[@notmuch_23]

UNintended? nah, that was the intention

[@williammcquail1716]

You sure that's unintended?

[@fenrirrider3991]

The small town I lived in put up one of those speed signs that displays your speed when you go past. On a perfectly flat and strait road. With farmland and nothing one either side, and a clear view of the entire road for a half mile after the sign. I set several personal land speed records, as did other high school students. The sign was removed a month after it was installed.

[@patrickbrooks2743]

Have you done one on the CAFE standards and how trying to increase fuel efficiency led to bigger, less fuel efficient vehicles?

[@ReasonTV]

That's Volume 13! kzbin.info/www/bejne/qWaldX1_p9t0h9Esi=WIP8v6s3tM7FlBc6

[@minispiel19]

Oregon decriminalizing drug possession. We fixed that real quick!

[@jasondashney]

In Vancouver, there are places you can go and bring your illegal street drugs to test them for purity. You can also get peyote and mushrooms and all kinds of stuff here in a retail establishment. Did I mention the drug problem is absolutely out of control here and the homeless problem has skyrocketed since they started safe injection sites, etc.?

[@user-hm5zb1qn6g]

@@jasondashney In Vancouver, BC, crackheads are now smoking up in hospital paitents' rooms. Nurses are specifically forbidden from interfering.

[@jasondashney]

@@user-hm5zb1qn6g Really? Haven't heard that one yet. I worked construction on a project in the absolute worst part of town, so I saw the most horrific parts of this stuff every day. Nothing would surprise me at this point.

[@billjacobson3012]

Do one on the plastic bag ban in new jersey that resulted in 3 times the amount of plastic being used

[@daffers2345]

Also most of the reusable totes in Jersey are synthetic, have screen prints (plastic ink) that flakes off and goes into the environment, and they're crummy quality so they rip and are tossed. Then you have to get more cheap, synthetic totes with flaky plastic-ink prints. (Looking at YOU, Wal-Mart.)

[@steprockmedia]

Thanks! I saw that first backfire coming as soon at the signs went up, haha.

[@EF-69]

What can we take away from this series? Government *always* gets it wrong, no matter what *it* is.

[@RJKYEG]

As an Edmontonian I am just happy to be included.

[@stephenbrown36]

Complete with the Oiler's plate on the car.

[@jasondashney]

I don’t even live there anymore and I got kind of excited to see that too.

[@JxH]

Speed bumps in residential neighborhoods. Once upon a time, someone went to a neighborhood with freshly-installed speed bumps, at 6AM on a Sunday morning. When he arrived at the first speed bump, his vehicle was "having trouble" surmounting the bump. So he lit up the rear tires and ever so slowly was able to push the front wheels up and over the bump. Same thing happened with the rear wheels; it took a lot of power, smoke and noise to surmount the lump in the road. Curtains being opened, lights coming on, LOL... So it went down the entire length of the road. In memory of this event, if I'm forced to slow down, then I'll switch to Sport+ mode for quicker speed limit recovery. Sorry about the noise.

[@barnacsikos7343]

The program CSOK in Hungary. It was intended to help families get houses by giving out basicly free money for couples, if you promised you will have children. Housing prices skyrocketed, aand after the time to have enough children had already ran out for the first families who used this, they are losing their homes, because they can't back the money

[@psyxypher3881]

I needed this today. Thank you.

[@smareng]

My old hometown of Edmonton made the list!

[@alexkiser4017]

Please do smokey bear. Stopping all small low intensity fires across the nation led to an over abundance of forest fuels. Now when there are fires they are much more intense, spread further, and cause more forest death because the fires reach the tree crowns. There has also been a significant decrease in fire dependent species of tress, plants, and birds. They tried to rebrand slightly by changing the original slogan from "only you can prevent forest fires" to the current "only you can prevent wildfires". Wildfires were an extremely rare occurrence before the ban and stoppage of all fires.

[@johngalt97]

All the unburned pine needles leaching into the lake water was the source of the 'acid rain problem'.

[@brianmccain8818]

You can basically look at any law passed by California in the last two years. Free healthcare, $20 minimum wage, 0 interest loans for illegals. They probably give out free college too. Certain that none of those will backfire

[@mechanicalmonk2020]

Germany gives out free college. Has for a very long time. I'm sure that will eventually back fire right?

[@geraldfrost4710]

​@@mechanicalmonk2020The GI bill that gave free college to returning vets more than paid for itself. Low-cost public education isn't a bad thing. And by low cost, I mean the student pays a week's wage per quarter.

[@garagemetalshop7975]

The California University system is very expensive for people who do not get a subsidy. Is not free for most people. California universities are supposed to be tuition-free, which is true. The $25k you pay annually are called “fees”, and their education is not very good.

[@bertblue9683]

The Streisand effect in full glory on penny puncher

[@aussiewanderer6304]

Some options for future episodes: 1. Australia brought in a mining tax to tax companies on their profits for minerals taken out of the ground. The companies just set up intermediate mineral trading companies that bought the minerals 'at cost' before on-selling them. The government, predicting over a billion dollars in revenue, only made a small fraction of the money they expected. 2. The Australian government reversed sperm donor anonymity for donors previously promised it. The result was that donor numbers plummeted and Australia has so few donors that it effectively imports sperm from overseas (because Australian law prevents local donors being paid, despite sperm banks making lots of money on the donations). Demand also increased when same sex couples and single women could get access to IVF. One reason why there's so few donors is the lack of trust in the government not to back track on other sperm donor guarantees (like never having to pay child support).

[@captaincampalot]

Fast food restaurants in California are likely to start selling bread so that they can skirt the minimum wage hike, which has an exemption for fast food restaurants that sell bread

[@geraldfrost4710]

Bread baked on premises. But why the exemption in the first place? Also. "We make our own breadsticks, but we buy our buns." How's that gonna work?

[@normanyerby2009]

​@geraldfrost4710 One of Gavin Newsom's donors owns a ton of Paneras.

[@geraldfrost4710]

​@@normanyerby2009Makes sense.

[@craigpridemore7566]

lol! As SOON as you started the story on noise pollution and showed the solution my brain went, 'Hmmm,🤔 I wonder what the top number it can register is...'

[@daffers2345]

I thought that too, and I immediately thought someyhing like "They're gonna try to get as loud as possible."

[@ChrisLoew]

neighborhood put up a radar speed indicator sign, may or may not have hit 54mph in 15mph zone on sportbike. after being up for 3 months, it was taken down 2 days later. wonder if the saw the scoreboard?

[@Munce72]

Great work ReasonTV! Scooby snacks for you. Praying for Israel. My allegiance is to Liberty and the Republic.

[@MrFallingfromgrace]

Wish the media still worked like that

[@RealityOrganized]

Spanish Army gives more benefits to female soldiers. In 2024, Spanish army allowed soldiers to "self-identify their gender". Result: Male Spanish soldiers "self-identify" as women to get increased benefits.

[@KOSS800]

My god I just found this series, 10/10!

[@teresabenson3385]

Regarding #1, Des Moines had put a number of very expensive speed cameras on the freeway overpasses that displayed car speeds. They had to remove them for the same reason as Edmonton.

[@bobbytables4305]

On the Second one... fun fact there was a contractor the city worked with be fore that supported LGBT+ efforts. The company latter moved to a prohibited state and the city could no longer work with this "supplier".

[@mechanicalmonk2020]

be fore? latter? "supplier"? Like, is that sarcastic? Did they not actually supply things?

[@frankleepower2333]

I can't wait for the "$20 an hour fast food workers" edition of "Great Moments in Unintended Consequences.

[@ajtemplar]

I absolutely love this series!

[@JohnD-JohnD]

lol at throwing away the law in a really expensive trash can. Couple ideas.. How about inviting immigrants to sanctuary states/cites, then saying they are full when just a few arrive. Or how about CA telling people they must convert to EV, then telling people the grid can't handle charging them.

[@patrickkuhn2225]

Do FDR's WWII wage controls leading employer provided health insurance.

[@CJ-eo2xz]

Edmonton eventually came back with enforcement. There are places where, like an automated speed trap, there are automated… sound traps. Still the worst city to drive in with their ridiculous restrictions and sneaky enforcement.

[@herknorth8691]

I was born and raised in Edmonton. The more I hear about it (and Canada in general) the more I'm glad I left when I did.

[@tvh300]

​@@herknorth8691 if you have to be in Canada, Alberta is the place you want to be. You can do much worse than Edmonton.

[@herknorth8691]

@@tvh300 Fortunately I don't have to be. I can't imagine living in any big city ever again.

[@jasondashney]

Yet the best city to navigate. It’s a giant grid and when someone tells you the nearest intersection, you know exactly where they are. I miss that. Sidenote: I’m absolutely blown away that Alberta allows automated speed traps. That seems like the least Alberta thing ever.

[@herknorth8691]

@@jasondashney I will concede that Edmonton's grid system and the use of NUMBERS instead of names for streets and avenues makes navigation a breeze. I haven't seen that in any other major city.

[@TickedOffPriest]

Never underestimate how people can mock tyrrants.

[@GeoFry3]

The sound semsors were like "your speed" radar gun signs. Challenge accepted.

[@charleshetrick3152]

Overlay the map of states San Francisco wouldn’t do business with and it’s the same as the map of states with “permit-less carry”

[@stevenscott2136]

I'm surprised SF will do business with any outfit that still employs a white male heterosexual.

[@geraldfrost4710]

At a glance I thought it was republican majority states.

[@charleshetrick3152]

@@geraldfrost4710 both, I think most of those are. South Carolina just got constitutional carry aka “permit-less”. It wouldn’t be surprising.

[@fredbloggs8072]

Did you know that the guy that came up with the brilliant idea of putting lead in petrol/gasoline was the same guy that thought up the even more brilliant idea of putting CFCs in refrigerators & aerosols? Thomas Midgley Jr. Not an environmentalist, I assume.

[@Liberty4Ever]

Midgley was the King of Unintended Consequences - potentially good ideas gone horribly wrong. If he was still alive, he would have invented mRNA vaccines.

[@JxH]

He died after getting himself tangled up in a contraption of his own design. He was the one single organism that did more harm to the atmosphere than any other in the Earth's history. Leaded fuels have been tightly correlated, both up and especially down, with crime and violent crime with a 20-year offset. (This factoid forces the unaware to self-announce that they're blissfully unaware of national crime stat trends... Go:...)

[@user-hm5zb1qn6g]

@@JxH I thought I was the only person to have ever read about that correlation. When I mention it to people they look at me like I've invented my own conspiracy theory.

[@p4277]

The decibel score board is a classic! Games are fun!

[@ethanmx2]

A good one for this would be AHF's Measure B from 2012 that put so many health regulations on porn production in LA County that it basically made it a de facto ban on production in the area, forcing the industry to relocate to Vegas and Miami, where no such regulations exist, and screwing LA County out of filming permit fees, which fell 95% after the measure was enacted.

[@eugenedillenburg3329]

OK, I've watched the whole series, and you haven't done federal student loans. The idea was to make college more affordable by subsidizing tuition. Colleges responded to all that extra available money by jacking up tuition. The result: college is less affordable than ever, and students graduate with crushing amounts of debt.

[@michaeltorrisi7289]

That's a good one, but not sure you can really lay out the entire issue in 30 seconds, that's like a full half hour to hour long video on its own. From the devaluation of a degree to the increase in tuition costs and the publish or perish model brought on by massive departments trying to get research published, there are a TON of unintended consequences there. Personally, I'd like to see them do the Salton Sea.

[@EarthenDam]

Here is one, I am not sure you used it. California was trying to make all departments alternate fueled vehicles that were not heavy duty trucks, what went wrong? A massive increase in heavy duty vehicles where it made no sense because California put no additional funding for infrastructure to support it, Classic California!

[@michaelsommers2356]

This series is great.

[@Ploxtifs_OldAndDeadAccountXD]

So glad that last one isn’t implemented today, as a lot of very powerful people who just so happen to also be furries would be very upset that they can’t be depicted as their OC’s…

[@nicholasheimann4629]

Sovereign immunity for professors at state schools.

[@theeraphatsunthornwit6266]

Past mistake is a good teacher😂

[@TheIrishny]

This is such a great series.

[@n3307v]

You folks are geniuses. You gave me the best laugh I've had all day. From the writing to the images to the narration, you folks nail it every time.

[@philliphartman2381]

A degree is a ticket to a middle class life because employers see a degree as a sign you were special and better than the rest. Universities then start handing out degrees to people who don't deserve them to lift them up into the middle class. Employers no longer see the degree as having value. People take out huge loans to get worthless degrees making them even poorer than before.

[@Goldenspiderducck]

Pennypacker also screwed over Elaine Benes in her crusade to drive Cinco de Mayo out of business.

[@stevenscott2136]

"But without desiccant, these clothes will be noticeably musty in only five years!"

[@kalebglenn5279]

The MAIN thing San Francisco changed was removing the ban on companies headquarter locations. Practically NOTHING else has changed; any entity that wants to do business with them still has to support all the same stuff as before.

[@allenreed4078]

I love this series! Suggestion: Oregon state decriminalized drugs. Now the public health crisis is so great there they're looking at reciminaluzing, at least hard drugs.

[@KolaNutKing]

Part???: Not So Full Houses The year: 1999-2007 The problem: People are unable to get mortgages to buy houses. The Solution: The sub-prime mortgage. By lowering the strict requirements to qualify, more people are able to buy houses and get a piece of the American dream. Turns out - those strict requirements are there so people Will actually pay back their loans. By expanding who can get a mortgage, there is a higher chance of people who can’t afford it and default. Combine this with predatory interest rates, letting investors bet on people paying back their loans, totally undeserved AAA safety ratings, that you’ve got the recipe for an economic housing bubble collapse. I guess even in real estate,The House Always Wins ;-)

[@ccityplanner1217]

History is made of unintended consequences.

[@Ultracity6060]

This series could survive on San Fransisco alone.

[@Geoff_G]

Part 3 reminds me of the Vander Zap cartoons in BC.

[@Bobo-ox7fj]

Really sad to hear that San Fransicko eventually decided to stop cutting off appendages to spite their constituents.

[@RetroGamer20109]

I would love to see an unintended consequence video on how a change in the student loan law created the student loan crisis today

[@ccmuclamba]

Last one was like the Streisand effect

[@alekhidell7068]

I was just reading “Death by Socialism” by JM Rock when this popped up. Good timing! By the way, I highly recommend the book! It’s the best book I’ve ever read on the topic.

[@bopaintsminis]

Thanks. That made my morning.

[@lawrencegolba2244]

Yes! A bigger boost than the caffeine in my coffee!

[@UnprofessionalFlicks]

I appreciate the little details in the background for Edmonton. Particularly the moose crossing sign. However there were a couple of genuine innacuracies. Loblaws is an Eastern Canadian franchise, so we don't see them in Edmonton. Also road signs are mostly only bilingual in Quebec, not Alberta.

[@ethansux]

His tone got so much better

[@ajtroglio5248]

Suggestion. In Missouri semi trucks are restricted to the right hand lanes of the interstates. People complained they could not pass. The result? The right hand lanes are falling apart requiring more frequent repairs

[@luigig44]

Will you do an episode on how, when Milei abolished rent controls in Argentina, supply sky rocketed and prices plummeted? Or rather, an episode on how a rent control was passed a few years ago and it massively backfired? We call it 'efecto Lipovetzky' here, honoring the lawmaker that proposed it.

[@lenbuckholtz2740]

LOVE your series 😁😁😁

[@TuhljinTampergauge]

1:06 "San Francisco's values" """""values"""""

[@williamfriar6295]

The ongoing lawfare against Donald Trump comes to mind. As it continues, more people are seeing it for EXACTLY WHAT IT IS.