Great Moments in Unintended Consequences (Vol. 5)

[@Maxyy40]

“Okay we’ll do the Cobra thing.”

[@poodlescone9700]

Knowing is half the battle.

[@kylepusey7753]

‘Straight out of GI JOE’-gave me a good chuckle.

[@kalaong]

"...even if we can't confirm it, we'll do because it gets done at least two more times that we *can* confirm..."

[@loginavoidence12]

i thought they were gonna do the unemployment thing, after you lost your job "you qualify for cobra (health insurance) for __$2536___ a month" like anyone would pay that

[@alphagt62]

@@loginavoidence12it really is a slap in the face. After you’ve paid a fortune for insurance for 20 years, they treat you like a grifter.

[@Liberty4Ever]

Government: If you don't like our problems, wait until you see our solutions!

[@ahumandoing6813]

If you don't like the problems we create, just wait until you see our solutions.

[@strayedarticle2838]

Capitalists: Hold my beer.

[@jovetj]

“I'm from the government and I'm here to help."

[@andrewvelonis5940]

@@jovetj Ronal Reagan said that. About the most Un-American quote I have ever heard.

[@jovetj]

@@andrewvelonis5940 Unamerican? Care to elaborate?

[@AusFirewing]

On the bounty thing, there was a highly successful program to reduce the feral goat population in Arkaroola, South Australia. The difference was that because the people running the place didn't have a bottomless bucket of taxpayer money to draw from, they actually paid attention to what the hunters were doing and made sensible decisions regarding bounty payouts. Within two years the program had been discontinued; not because it was a failure, but because the hunters kept complaining that they couldn't find any feral goats to shoot.

[@brockm4047]

When it's your own money, or at least you treat it as such, these programs can work. This is why outsourcing our personal responsibility to people that we can't reasonably monitor and funded by theft (tax) is a bad idea!

[@katieandkevinsears7724]

Isn't Australia the place that fought a war against emus and lost?

[@AusFirewing]

@@katieandkevinsears7724 The problem: Emu overpopulation damaging farmer's crops and overtaxing the native habitat. The solution: Send two army privates out with a car and a single machinegun to take care of the problem. Sounds like a great idea, with the best of intentions!

[@Ninjax2000]

@@AusFirewing What could possibly go wrong?

[@phgamer4393]

@@AusFirewing there is a whole sub reddit devoted to memes related to emus winning the austrialian war

[@mustang607]

Regardless of good intentions, it's much easier to have bad results when using other peoples money.

[@prancer1803]

So true

[@longanddeadly]

No one spends other people's money as carefully as one spends their own - Milton 'Freed-Man' Friedman.

[@kitkat47chrysalis95]

i feel like i get bad results with my own money though

[@kitkat47chrysalis95]

@@longanddeadly you underestimate how badly i spent my money) i invested 90% of my networth in Gazprom and Sberbank stocks

[@schnellfahren911]

True, and can't ignore the propensity for abuse, as if a politician won't go help push through a spending bill after buying stock in a beneficiary to that bill.

[@nicosmind3]

I live in Northern Ireland and had no idea this was going on until a friend told me all about it. I'm glad our incompetent government made it onto ReasonTV :)

[@kimghanson]

No need to say "incompetent government". It's just redundant.

[@majdavlk649]

i would rather live under a government that didnt make it into this series :D

[@Mintstar_Oceanpop]

Give it time.

[@erik_dk842]

Now they are flooding you with discolored grapefrugees to spite you

[@Aegis---]

@@erik_dk842 i love when yanks talk about shite they dont understand and just parrot media talking points lmao

[@InnocuousRemark]

It's like they think they're playing Sim City and all the little data points will respond to their polices in exactly one way

[@jellybeans0493]

That's exactly what it is for these people.

[@ErikBuchanan]

I wish there was a Reason: Unintended Consequences version of Sim City where every time you try to control your population something unintended and worse happens.

[@christopherlarsen7788]

"Blah-blah-blah-blah-blah ... More pigs." Damn, that was funny!

[@JohnWVarner]

Everything is swine now

[@ovidiucroitoru2290]

Still is😅

[@achefwithtwokittens]

These videos teach us that the government has a horrible track record of solving problems

[@AKlover]

Government as often as not creates the problems ............... Then idiots ask them to solve the problem they created.

[@ThaKodiakkiller]

There are no solutions, only trade-offs

[@jwonz2054]

Everyone sucks at problem solving, the government just takes longer to fix problems they make and have an unlimited budget to keep dumping into new problems.

[@z_t_k]

Also a horrible memory

[@RodMartinJr]

Yes, which is why the Founding Fathers constrained the federal government with the Constitution and the 10th Amendment. Sadly, the Deep State ignored the Constitution and created an *_illegally_* HUGE federal government.

[@jdinhuntsvilleal4514]

"This country has come to feel the same when Congress is in session as when the baby gets hold of a hammer." - Will Rogers

[@kalburgy2114]

Our Founders feared a standing army. We have learned to fear a sitting legislature.

[@JohnSmith-ch9sm]

@@kalburgy2114 I don't know about that. Unless you mean literally sit. Cause the legislature doesn't do the job that they're supposed to do (actually telling the executive branch how to run the country).

[@mayorb3366]

"If 'pro' is the opposite of 'con', what is the opposite of 'progress'"? - Will again

[@Mereologist]

There literally exists an investment fund called the 'Congressional Effect Fund' that divests itself when Congress is in session and buys up everything when Congress is not in session. The theory is that the mere existence of Congress creates uncertainty in business because the rules might change at any moment, and this is reflected in much more conservative business strategy, while simply letting business do what it does allows it to truly grow. I'm told they get a fairly reasonable return every year.

[@Rocketsong]

The Place: Arizona The year: 2000 The Problem: Not enough alternative fuel being used. The Solution: Subsidize 50% of vehicles which are bi-fuel and can burn natural gas. The result, tens of thousands of people buy fully loaded luxury SUVs converted to run on both gasoline and natural gas. And simply run them using gas instead of LNG. Costing the state $800 million and increasing gas consumption. (and a previously popular governor losing reelection)

[@xxxBradTxxx]

Dude, Arizona has the largest CO2 free power plant in the country, Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station. If they really wanted to do something green, it would be adding the 3 more reactors to the plant which were originally planned.

[@bozimmerman]

This should be a legit contender for the next episode. Nicely done Rocket.

[@lq7777]

In fairness, if Arizona is anything like Florida there aren’t a lot of Natural Gas fueling stations. You gotta have the infrastructure in place if you expect people to switch. If enough people have flex fuel vehicles, then adding more fueling stations could get some to make the switch especially if regular gas is rising in cost.

[@jackgibsxxx0750]

​@@bozimmerman..... They did it. I saw it on an episode last night. Don't know when it was posted.

[@jackgibsxxx0750]

​@@lq7777.... They did an episode on this. I believe they said that a lot of the vehicles were outfitted with ONE gallon tanks for the alt fuel. And most never used the alternative fuel anyway.

[@fearthehoneybadger]

Sometimes the consequences are intended. Some people deliberately want to disrupt the system.

[@RoyArrowood]

Sometimes the rat tail bounty hunter starts a superpac that funds the politicians campaigns and spends millions to "lobby" members of Congress so they keep passing the legislation

[@fearthehoneybadger]

@@RoyArrowood Exactly why government subsidy programs are so hard to cancel.

[@RoyArrowood]

@@fearthehoneybadger Which is why we need to elect just random every day people and stop voting for anyone attached to the system at all. Elect me, I fix ACs and I don't know shit about shit but I can hire people that do. I won't deliberately undermine our Republic and I will push campaign finance reform. Elect your grandma I don't care. Anybody really just not Democrats, Republicans or anyone who ever took a dollar from the system

[@brockm4047]

Governments create wealth like mosquitoes create blood.

[@BeaverChainsaw]

@@RoyArrowood I honestly don't get the obsession with political outsiders. Democratic elections around the world show populist politicians claiming to be political outsiders and outside of the system but end up mingling with the corrupt or being even bigger pieces of trash than the incumbents they replace. On top of that, having less experience and wisdom that comes with the complex job of governing entire countries, states, provinces, cities whatever you name it. No but seriously though, governing in democratic governments is tough business and you can't always rely on your advisors. I do get it though, americans, my self included are tired of ineffective governance and leaders that care more about their corporate overlords than the people

[@curiousing]

This is the greatest ReasonTV series ever. And that's saying a lot.

[@paxiahern2383]

This series and the 'Libertarian PBS' are so great!

[@ragnarok7976]

"Do you have a warrant to be here" still makes me laugh like an insane person when I think of it.

[@mariochamorro1969]

Remy forever

[@ragnarok7976]

The train track thing is a classic AI problem. You tell the agent to build it long hoping it will cover a lot of distance. The agent builds a spiral or a zig zag because it's the longest track it can make and doesn't require it to transport materials or move far from its start location. You always get what you ask for so be specific!

[@Ryan-is-me]

Great moments in unintended consequences! The year: 2020 The problem: The government shut down the economy and told people they can't work The solution: Give everyone thousands of dollars Sounds like a great idea! With the best of intentions! What could possibly go wrong?

[@kennylowry9666]

Needs to be in the video....ReasonTV dropped the ball on that one haha

[@WearilyCorrect]

The result: inflation of unprecedented proportions

[@TickedOffPriest]

Inflation with no one wanting to work.

[@Dadecorban]

guys guys, the feds say the inflation is just price increases related to fuel and supply chains.

[@BeaverChainsaw]

Covid stimulus boosted consumer spending by a crap ton, child tax credits cut child poverty in half, and workers have far more bargaing power due to the workers shortage. I wouldnt say inflation nor the working shortage was a good think but I think the stimulus had more benefits than detriments. Also we wouldn't have had to shut down the freaking economy if governments just shut down earlier, the quicker we could've went back to the outside world!

[@johnborden9208]

Good intentions, GOOD results! Glad you're still doing your Unintended Consequences series. Please keep them coming!

[@RussellNelson]

The Transcontinental Railroads were even worse than that. The meeting point was not laid down in a contact, so when the two railroads got to each other, they kept on building past each other! You can look on the aerial photo now near Promontory Point and see both railbeds. Look east and west of Promontory Summit. The wye at that point cuts through the other railroad's grade, very obviously. In addition, the track was so poorly built that it had to be completely reconstructed within a year of completion.

[@SoloPilot6]

There was no meeting point designated, and the two competing rail companies worked to get as many dedicated miles as possible. By the time the bureaucrats finally decided that Promontory was the most logical meeting point, the UP surveyors were in Nevada and the CP had iron all the way to Ogden. Much of the roadbeds seen in modern overhead photos are actually from the 1890 - 1910 era, as the lines were improved and relocated (even after the Lucin Cutoff opened in 1902). Repairs continued until the "Promontory Branch" was abandoned, the tracks pulled up for the iron during WWII. The old rail route is popular with off-roaders during summer. Only a few sections of the track needed to be rebuilt, and those had been put in with the intent of opening the line as rapidly as possible. The repairs were expensive, but the trade-off was considered necessary, as opposed to waiting for Michigan trees to be cut, floated to mills, cut into ties, seasoned, treated, hauled to Omaha and run out to the construction camps -- a process which was underway before the UP laid its first rail, and continued for decades.

[@TrentCantrell]

Subtitle: Or when the people who make the plans are never held personally accountable for the outcome.

[@dl5244]

The good'ol "5 year plan" for a 4-year term... and somehow it's always 5-10 years away

[@ssippishark]

I will never forget Barry Obama's "cash for clunkers" destroying cars that could have been fixed, recycled, and re-used. Very green indeed. Those used cars would be worth double today.

[@brockm4047]

I suffered from that horrible idea at the time, not being able to afford neither a new or used car despite still needing transportation.

[@potato2941]

how about obama phone?

[@frankstallone3864]

@Potato that started under GWB

[@f.d.6667]

I remember even CNN warning people that they might want to hold on to their cars...

[@chaos.corner]

We sold a minivan we didn't need in the wake of that and the young family we sold it to were amazingly happy because they were having trouble finding a vehicle to get their family around in. I'd actually considered trading it in on the program to get a new car for my mother-in-law but fuck that wasteful bullshit.

[@BTS-sj9dh]

OMG... that hard cut between the Rats and Pigs. ROFL. Great edit.

[@ITSecurityFTW]

This is one of my favorite Reason series. :)

[@jonah9250]

Agreed!

[@JasonWester]

This should be a weekly series.

[@Aaron.Reichert]

"Dont worry we learned our lesson and it never happened a.. Fort benning Georgia!" "Bla bla bla bla more pigs"

[@darthhodges]

I have seen bounties work when the bounty A) specifically required the whole corpse and B) was not an easily bred animal. Specifically magpies (a kind of bird) in rural Idaho. I'm not aware of anyone successfully breeding them for the purpose of exploiting the bounty in that instance. I am aware of stories of teenagers figuring out that certain kinds of guns don't leave enough of a corpse to be able to collect the bounty. The bounty was specifically intended to help farmers whose crops were being harmed by said birds and it has occurred to me it didn't have to be the government to run it. An independent farmer's association or even an insurance company that insures some of the farmers' crops could implement such as long as the government didn't find an excuse to prohibit it.

[@MrRyanroberson1]

Another trick is to make the program limited to one generation of the animal's lifespan, which would only work if the animal takes more than a year to age up to bounty standards.

[@TheMichaelMove]

Yeah but THIS time it’s totally going to work!

[@ObeyCamp]

The foleywork for the sound of the dead snake slapping onto the ground is just top notch lmao.

[@brandonkenney6310]

I love the intro to "the cobra thing" to describe the origins of the term "The Cobra Effect", which is essentially what this series is about.

[@MichaelBranson6]

The self-interruption at 3:11 is awesome 🤣🤣🤣

[@BlazeGuitarLessons]

I love how it just cuts to Georgia randomly. Brilliant!

[@rockymountainfever204]

These videos are the best, keep it up!

[@TorturedPeace]

“The road to hell is paved with good intentions!”

[@Rajaat99]

These are the best videos. Keep making them!

[@augmenautus]

"A title that sounds straight out of GI joe" I died 😆

[@MyLuggage12345]

This one is so funny... how do these not have millions of views?!?

[@ExpatriatePaul]

Sadly, this only scratches the surface of the subject, the U.S. fed gov has screwed up a LOT more than this.

[@luc8254]

"Bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla bla... More pigs..." 😂😂

[@hueyiroquois3839]

So basically, the road to Hell is a government project.

[@NRDavis-wl8vn]

Paved with good intentions. Must have done a good job for once. A whole lot of people going down there thinking "24 hour Fire Pit Weanie Roast" is great....

[@DRAKKENFIRE22]

I love these episodes!!! It shows how history repeats itself because we don't learn from our mistakes and the mistakes of others. Especially, when we want to do the "right thing". Like Democrats love to say "let's spend more money to solve the problem" with an unspecified plan. And it illustrates why we shouldn't rely on government so much for things we can do for ourselves.

[@greyspot00]

This is my new favorite series. I was cracking up at the G.I. Joe joke

[@CorazonDeCristoCano]

It'd be nice to see a video going through the consequences of various governments instituting minimum wages.

[@thebobloblawshow8832]

Love this show 👍👍

[@joxterthemighty]

This is a great highlight of the tragedy of the commons, people will find the loophole no matter what!

[@qhack]

The truly bad part of all this... we are now on Vol. 5 and I doubt they are running out of material.

[@theofficialwoohoogamers]

we're on vol. 17...

[@jonah9250]

Please please please keep doing these!!!

[@millsbrian55]

More please! This is great!

[@alanhill769]

I love these videos. I will watch them all. What could possibly go wrong.

[@jovetj]

3:10 That surprise transition is simply genius!

[@SonOfLiberty82]

These are great! And getting better each installment. Whittier and more clever

[@smicksmookety]

but if you pay people not to work they'll be motivated to work - that's the one exception.

[@austinbyrd4164]

Lol

[@MrSharpdrop]

Sure! Who wants to stay home all comfy cozy, making hundreds of dollars more than they have before? Especially when they can go work a job, they hate, for a smaller amount of money and possibly catch a disease that every SCIENCE(!) person tells them has a 99.9% chance of killing them!

[@calonisac1596]

We should play these in public schools yearly.

[@OscarOSullivan]

Funny because the people who run this channel don’t believe in state schools

[@yvan2563]

The editing at ~3m11s is perfect, I've already watched the whole video once, but that re-watching that part still makes me laugh every single time.

[@hardrockuniversity7283]

Very good method of making the point.

[@davidyetter5409]

You need to do one on FDR in the 1930's. The effects of which are still felt today.

[@OscarOSullivan]

Like what? Because it seems hetrosexual white men in America did well out of him

[@davidyetter5409]

@@OscarOSullivan No... Nobody did well under FDR. His policies damaged every aspect of American society.

[@super8mate]

It's encouraging and inspiring that they have to go back so far in history and to other countries to find unintended consequences. Must mean that things work out well the majority of the time. Great!

[@rogerforsberg3910]

Wouldn't that be comforting to believe! The fact of the matter, Mr S, is that these examples are the "best" & most fascinating of government's folly, ignorance & incompetence. Please note that I don't believe that all, or even most, of government's activities end with such an extraordinary waste of resources, but it's much more that most people might believe.

[@jimhughes1070]

WTF!?!? 😭😭😭🤣🤣

[@GeekIWG]

I love this series!

[@Novalight2550]

Love the narration. Great job.

[@mikeokismall3831]

"Blah blah blah blah, more pigs" lmao

[@educosta21]

That's my favorite series. You are awesome.

[@RyanLasek]

This is my favorite series on ReasonTV

[@Ninjax2000]

It's like politicians keep forgetting the first rule of economics: People respond to incentives.

[@rainynight02]

I'm loving this series. Too bad it wasn't going the 10 years between one and two!

[@supernovamike]

This might be my favorite series on KZbin

[@MC-dn8if]

These are now may favorite reason videos.

[@ArloPignotti]

If ReasonTV could keep up they'd be on volume 1,000,000.

[@chrisbritt4266]

That was great and that was funny I needed that this morning

[@stevessports4717]

More of these please.

[@pernybergsund885]

This is the best series on KZbin

[@mondavou9408]

This one might be your best one yet.

[@jackmoore6904]

I live right next to Fort Benning. People still show up at the gate asking about the pig bounty.

[@mar10ssj1]

The road to hell is often paved with good intentions.

[@joinedupjon]

The northern ireland thing was a near carbon copy of a policy which worked as intended elsewhere. They just decided to delete one little clause for some unknown reason and it all went haywire.

[@TheRisky9]

"After two years..." Hey that's not bad for a corrupt government program... "...they managed to lay 40 miles of track" Oh...

[@zacharymarentette5269]

2:39, the best thing to do in that instance really would be to warn people about the bounty stopping, or reducing it to be less that raising a cobra, so at least they don't release even more snakes

[@andrewvelonis5940]

This was the best one yet.

[@holdenhockman8340]

I love this series

[@M0rmagil]

Great stuff. 👍🏻

[@shrimuyopa8117]

I would argue that most government programs have had unintended consequences. Most of those have been negative.

[@aixpert291]

More of these!!!

[@davidwright757]

Great moments in unintended consequences The affordable care act aka Obama Care The year: 2010 The problem: No affordable coverage for preexisting conditions The solution: Raise insurance rates for everyone else and let the health care companies write the bill Sounds like a great idea! With the best of intentions! What could possibly go wrong?

[@reethreepio7220]

Good one!

[@geraldfrost4710]

"Let's have the fox guard the henhouse!"

[@ShomoGoldburgler]

Government has a sort of Midas touch, everything it touches turns to crap

[@wmason1961]

Love this series.

[@hagerty1952]

The cobra thing sounds like San Francisco's approach to the homeless problem.

[@ardentenquirer8573]

These are excellent --- why am just hearing these now?

[@iAmTheSquidThing]

Seriously, does no one ever stop to think "How might this policy be abused?"

[@reethreepio7220]

You must be new here...

[@patrickhelmick2807]

These are great!

[@nobillismccaw7450]

Brilliant!

[@nathanweisser]

I DEMAND EVEN MORE

[@JoshyHendoMan]

There’s some poor souls out there who would watch this and still conclude that it was capitalism’s fault these ideas didn’t work.

[@rallysportgroup8485]

"More cobras than EVER!"

[@derrickmcadoo3804]

More of these, please :)

[@sandyqbg]

If corporations could get away with so many even with regulations, imagine what they would be getting away with without any regulations or oversight. Oh wait, we already had that - the East India Companies. ALL OF THEM.

[@bergonius]

The delivery of jokes is brilliant. Except that wasn't jokes, that's reality. If only people in government learned...

[@richarda996]

Present government equals mental illness in 2020 and continues into the future. Insanely never rest.

[@danielmu22]

Here in Brazil something like the cobras problem really happened, the government payd for every rat you kill, than people started rats farms in Rio de Janeiro, then the government stops the program and the rats farmers just release the rats, the result? Rio was even more infested

[@primafacie5029]

This series is great

[@Shifterwizard]

You guys should make these videos more frequently!

[@jamesharmon4994]

Is there one of these for The Great Australian Emu War?

[@murzagildin]

Hilariously edited. 👏👏

[@imonlyamanandiwilldiesomed4406]

Great Depression: Despite over 1000 economists warning the government not to do it, gov tries to fight unemployment after the Crash of '29 by setting up a huge tariff on over 24,000 imported goods with the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act of June 1930. What could possibly go wrong!? The economy had been recovering from the crash (9% in December '29 to 6% in June '30), after the tariff act was created, unemployment skyrocketed to double digits and stayed that way for the next decade.

[@loud_laughter]

Best videos on the web. Hands (and tails) down!

[@Beetlesiri]

All I have learned is inept and corrupt politicians have no place in government. Also that politicians need people who will actually think over the possibilities of legislation instead of passing it and letting nature take it's course.