Great Moments in Unintended Consequences (Vol. 7)

Good intentions, bad results.

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Part 1: Road Kill

The year: 2012.

The problem: Driving fatalities on Texas roads!

The solution: Implement a simple, cost-effective awareness campaign by displaying crash death totals on highway message boards.

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

In order to read these messages, passing motorists must look away from the road. 

Accidents along roads with new displays increased by 4.5 percent within 10 km of the sign, according to one study—amounting to an additional 2,600 crashes and 16 deaths per year in Texas.

Not good news, considering more than half of states in the nation have deployed these signs on their roadways. 

Part 2: Bottle Throttle

The year: 2013

The problem: Bottled water consumption at the University of Vermont creating waste!

The solution: Eliminate single-use bottled water from campus vending machines, give away reusable containers, and spend $100,000 to add filling stations around campus.

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

Students don't always remember things, like their reusable water bottles. Faced with limited choices, a study revealed the demand for sugary drinks on campus surged 25 percent and plastic bottle use per capita had increased by 6 percent.

Some ideas shouldn't be recycled.

Part 3: No Way, Fiancé

The year: 1900

The problem: Argentine bachelors sucking up valuable resources without producing more citizens. 

The solution: A bachelor tax! A strangely popular feature of the time, but with a special waiver for those gentlemen whose proposals were turned down. No need to pour salt in that wound come tax day. 

Sounds like a bizarrely antiquated idea, with the best of intentions, what could possibly go wrong?

The tax exemption gave rise to an entirely new vocation: professional rejectors! These entrepreneurial ladies would swear to authorities that a gentleman tried—and failed—to win their hand. And all for a fraction of the cost of the tax itself. 

Proving the old adage: you can't buy love, but rejection is on sale.

Written and produced by Meredith and Austin Bragg; narrated by Austin Bragg.

[Ahthelphi]

Man, I don’t even live in Argentina and women all over have been rejecting me like it’s their job

[brandonkenney]

"Can't buy love, but rejection is on sale."
What a great line.

[TheMichaelMove]

The bachelor tax was sort of like a reverse one child policy. Government stupidity in both directions. Another great episode!

[zg-it]

This is the best series, who else knows that it started 10 years ago and they didn't make an episode for 10 years. And now they made six since

[conureron]

The problem is that politicians will try to overcome the unintended consequences with more laws that create more unintended consequences!

[SuperTuffgirl]

I always felt the “don’t drink and drive” sign was a ridiculous waste of tax dollars. A drunk driver driving along, sees the sign, says “Oh man I guess I should pull over and sleep it off.” Yeah a sign on the side of the road really prevents drunk driving.

[marcusmoonstein]

The Bachelor Tax: when governments try to legislate morality in addition to criminality.
Did anyone else notice the hypocrisy of taxing men who don't propose, but not women who refuse proposals?

[ccsargent]

This could be a 7/24 channel. Government will never understand incentives.

[adamsmith]

I would like to order 1 million more episodes of this. its so fun.

[petersmybro]

Bachelor tax title card -
Sounds like a.... Bizarrely antiquated idea....? With the best of intentions! What could possibly go wrong?
Love the twist in the catchphrase!

[aasd]

"4.5% within 10 km..." .... 10km... 6 miles.... 4.5%, within 6 miles of a sign.... In any given 6 mile span in Texas there are probably 2 to 10 of these signs.... How could a 10km/6mile radius of a sign be relevant. Especially within a metroplex like Houston or DFW... Ah fuck I wrecked, must have been because of that sign I read 4 miles ago. Or maybe the one coming up in the next 3 miles....

[willyreeves]

as entertaining as these are, i wish there was a shortage of new material for this series.

[FC]

As an argentinian I didn't know about the bachelor thing, but if you look at our history it's full of stories like this.
Nice video btw

[LorentzInvariance]

Please keep this awesome series alive and well. There really is no shortage of source material.

[Marqan]

Ah, it makes perfect sense now: every girl I approached must be a professional rejecter and they were just practicing on me. Thanks for clearing that up!

[brainfat]

The highway billboard thing is, I'm sure, partly correlation. But I will say that when they try to deliver more than one screen of information it gets very distracting.

[Inquisitor]

Just goes to show that authoritarian entities suck at solving problems.
Great show!

[hartfartpoptart]

Another great one from Texas "obey warning signs, state law".

Man, I can't tell you how many times I almost didn't listen to the warning signs until I saw one of those signs.

[juanhintze]

Llegamos a ReasonTV! Viva Peron carajo!

I can't believe it. Here in Argentina we have taxes on everything, and when you think they had invented everything, there is some new wacky idea. Now not only I would never imagined this, they had already done it.

[silveravnt]

"within ten kilometers of the sign" seems like a very arbitrary distance. The idea that people are being distracted by a sign 6 miles away seems far fetched.
The idea that people are more interested in these signs than they are the new digital billboards also seems far fetched.

This is one of my favorite series but this one looks like Reason ran out of material.