23 January 2008

Consequences: Unintended Variety. Surprising?

(via Instapundit)

Anyone surprised by unintended consequences anymore?

Shouldn't be, but government subsidized corn based fuels becoming a drain on water resources and raising the prices of food really isn't an unintended consequence. In most ways, these are precisely the intended consequences if anybody did back of the envelope calculations on what it would mean to attempt to replace a significant amount of petroleum with corn.

But why let science get in the way of politics, or feel-good dogooderism?

1 comment:

bill said...

So are you suggesting that a "product" has a finite "supply" and that an increased "demand" could conceivably increase the "price" of said product? This is quite the radical concept. If only someone could take this horrible mess of economic theory and create an easy to understand graphic that would make sense to everyone.

Probably too hard.