Great Moments in Unintended Consequences: Subsidized Trees, Daycare Fees, NY Alcohol Ban (Vol. 11)

Good intentions, bad results.

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Part One: Tree Decree

The year: 2019

The problem: Mexico needs trees!

The solution: the Sowing Life project, a $3.4 billion program that pays farmers to plant fruit and timber trees on barren land. Not only will this help spruce up the environment, but it will fight poverty and inequality by paying the farmers to maintain the new trees.

Sounds like a great idea, with the best of intentions. What could possibly go wrong?

It turns out poor farmers need money. And since standing trees didn't qualify for the program, the system incentivized farmers to cut down mature trees to make way for new ones. 

In one village, two-thirds of the program's participants cut down forests to get that cash.

One study found the program caused the deforestation of more than 280 square miles.

But, you know what they say about best-laid plan…ts.

Part Two: Pay Care

The year: 1998

The problem: Private day care centers in Israel are tired of parents arriving late.

The solution: Fine tardy parents a small fee for every late pickup.

Sounds like a great idea, with the best of intentions. What could possibly go wrong?

It turns out money isn't the only incentive, and a fine is just a price. To the surprise of the researchers, late arrivals more than doubled! The penalty, it seemed, allowed parents to ease their conscience. The shameful apology that once burdened them shifted to a simpler, legitimate cash transaction—one they were happy to pay.

Because honestly, ask any new parent what they would pay for an extra 10 minutes of free time.

Part Three: Loophole Lunch

The Year: 1896 

The Problem: Alcohol is ruining the moral fiber of New York! 

The Solution: the Raines Law! It created a bevy of rules that made it harder to open or operate drinking establishments, including a ban on the sale of alcohol on Sundays, except for hotels and lodging houses that served drinks with complimentary meals. I mean, wealthy New Yorkers tend to dine out at ritzy hotel restaurants when their servants have the day off. No need to ruffle their rich, upstanding, virtuous feathers. It's those poor people who are ruining everything! So yeah, stick it to them.

Sounds like a great terrible idea, with the best of puritanical intentions. What could possibly go wrong?

It turns out, people like drinking—even on Sundays! The ban was wildly unpopular.

Almost immediately, "Raines Law Hotels" were born. Basements and attics were converted into barely-furnished "rooms" and proprietors made deals with neighboring lodging houses. In Brooklyn, the number of registered hotels went from 13 to 800 after six months. Prostitutes and unmarried couples found the new rooms especially convenient.

To fulfill the law's food requirement, bar staff invented the "Raines Sandwich"—an easy, simple meal that would be served with a patron's drink but not consumed. The frequently inedible sandwich would be whisked away in seconds and quickly paired with the next order. It was not uncommon for the same sandwich to be reused for weeks. Yum.

Food for naught.

Great moments in unintended consequences: good intentions, bad results.

Written and produced by Austin Bragg, Meredith Bragg, and John Carter; narrated by Austin Bragg

[marcusmoonstein]

In South Africa the government mandated that any company tendering for government contracts had to meet stringent affirmative action requirements. As in the company had to have a certain percentage of black ownership. This directly led to the phenomenon of "fronting", whereby a black person with no skills in the relevant industry would tender for government business and then immediately subcontract the work to a company that had experience in the industry but which couldn't meet the AA requirements. The South African government itself estimated that the practice of fronting increased the costs to government by about 10% on all contracts.

[rickprice]

Here’s a great moment in unintended consequences: The city of St Paul MN, in roughly 2017 (give or take a couple years) decided that they would stop allowing residents to contract for their own garbage collection services and instead limit garbage hauling to government awarded contracts where haulers would have exclusive rights to neighborhoods. This was supposed to allow for fewer trucks in the allies and it would allow small operators to compete with the big national companies. (Waste Management) With the ability to just concentrate on one neighborhood, haulers would save money and prices would go down and service would improve! Within a year, due to all the bureaucratic nonsense, the number of garbage haulers in St Paul shrunk from 17 to 1. Waste Management. And… wait for it…. Prices went up and service is poorer (for me at least).

[aussiewanderer]

There's two towns in Victoria Australia that have a very winding road (rather than straight) because there were laws once in place that people couldn't be served alcohol on Sunday unless they were travellers who had travelled more than a certain distance from home (10km I think) and so both towns rebuilt the road to make it just long enough so on Sunday all the men would swap towns so they could drink.

The winding road is still like that today because it was too difficult to change.

[bcubed]

We did the "Raines sandwich" bit during Covid. Here in PA, there was a point where restaurants were open, but you couldn't drink at a bar. Hence, when you ordered a beer, you got a "roller dog" to go with it, and (so long as you didn't actually finish the hot dog) you could have as many drinks as you liked.

[herknorth]

Gun buy "backs" are a something that you should throw into one of these vids if you haven't already. Some people started making zip guns that didn't even work with a few bucks worth of materials from hardware stores. The program gave anyone who turned in a gun something like $50 per gun so the sub $50 zip guns were quite profitable.

Another gun-related one that I recall from many years ago (please fact check this since my memory is not reliable!): Belgium outlawed guns in "military calibers" and paid owners of such guns to turn them in. In Europe, the barrel and bolt of a firearm are considered the controlled parts (unlike America where the receiver or frame is) and counted as a "firearm" in and of themselves. Many patriotic Belgians owned FN-FAL rifles in a military caliber, 7.62x51mm NATO, which they took the barrel off of, turned it in for more money than it was worth and then used part of the proceeds to buy a barrel in caliber .308 Winchester, which is not in the inventory of any military but that can shoot 7.62x51mm NATO ammunition safely and reliably. The firearms were essentially unchanged except to get a brand new barrel and the owner made a profit to boot.

[Zetact_]

Considering how often the result is the government getting more money and power without solving the purported problem I think it's less "unintended consequences" and more "unstated intentions with successful results."

[peterhessedal]

I think this series should be required viewing for every legislative body in the country. If I'm required to go through required sensitivity training every year. Legislators should be required to go through required second and third ordered reasoning training every year.

[garrettkocach]

In many places, like Bourbon County Kentucky, it is illegal to throw away tires because they are an environmental problem. People are charged a disposal fee. This has led to people piling them or secretly dumping them causing more damage than going to a landfill.

[AdamSPARTAN]

Centrally planned, authoritarian social engineering could never possibly go wrong!

[josephoakes]

Here's one for ya. When Obamacare passed in whatever year, it mandated that employees who work more than 30 hours a week must be provided with healthcare insurance. The intention was to up the number of people with insurance. But employers found that having 2 part-time employees each working 20 hrs per week was cheaper than 1 full-time employee working 40 hrs per week because then the employer is not required to pay for health insurance. Several people I know were let go of full-time jobs and they instead had several part-time jobs to make up the loss of pay, resulting in a more hectic work schedule. I'm a teacher and the school district only pays once a month, so there was an upper limit on the number of times a substitute teacher would work for the month (I think it was 12), so what happened is that when we get to the last week of the month, there are no subs available, so teachers have to give up their prep time to cover other classes.

[jeycee]

The Raines sandwich reminds me of the covid restrictions NY put in place requiring people sitting at a bar to have food in order to be unmasked.

[jedimmj]

Not sure this fits the theme, but it's definitely an unintended consequence: In the year 2000 most of Israel's doctors went on strike. The result? A 20% drop in mortality rate for the duration of the strike.

[michaelbcohen]

Well the day care one in Israel did results in many places realizing they could make a lot of extra money (especially lower paid day care staff) through late penalty fees. Now its standard in many places in Israel. The original idea failed, but a whole new business came around because of it, and people love it today.

[BewareTheCarpenter]

The second one could actually be a win-win so long as you use the fine money to pay your staff to stay later, or hire someone new to run after daycare daycare.

[wizworm]

Flathead lake is the largest freshwater lake in Montana it was home to Kokanee salmon and had a thriving ecosystem. Biologists added brine shrimp for them to eat but soon found out that the shrimp were inactive while the salmon were active and it caused trout to eat the shrimp and it killed off the salmon

[joshcarlson]

Lol, the parents and late pick ups... Everyone knows that a fine simply translates to "legal for a price"!

[ProductBasement]

"A fine is just a price"
Words to live by

[jefferydebbink]

Good job using the tree one from Mexico, I remember seeing that one in the comments from the last Unintended Consequences video. What I’m still waiting on? Unintended Consequences videos that include the unintended consequences of gun control!!

[mustang]

Good intentions sure has skyrocketed this last decade, and so has bad results.

[jongreen]

Here is my favourite - Barber vs GRE 1990. Mr Barber was disgruntled that he had to retire at 65 whereas women could at retire at 60 (this was because men were often older than women in relationships and therefore could retire at the same time). He argued that pension is a form of pay and therefore should be equal and took his case to the European court and they ruled in his favour.

However instead of lowering the age of retirement for men to 60, they raised the retirement age or women to 65, thus achieving equality.

The irony is that he died aged 58.