Great Moments in Unintended Consequences: (Vol. 21)

Great moments in unintended consequences—when something that sounds like a great idea goes horribly wrong. Watch the whole series.

The Year: 2014

The Problem: Colombia produces too much coca, the raw material for cocaine.

The Solution: Announce a crop substitution program designed to pay farmers to voluntarily eradicate coca and replace their fields with legal crops.

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

Turns out, farmers like money. Since compensation was tied to having coca plants to destroy, many farmers decided to plant new coca plots or expand existing ones before the program went into effect, allowing them to qualify for the government subsidies. Coca production surged, and potential cocaine output more than tripled.

And when the government was unable to make good on its promises, many farmers decided to keep growing their new lucrative crop.

Way to blow it.

The Year: 2022

The Problem: App-based food delivery drivers don’t earn enough.

The Solution: Seattle’s Pay Up law, promising $26.40 an hour for drivers—before mileage and tips.

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

Turns out, when prices go up, demand goes down. What a novel concept. Someone should write that down.

In the first three months after the ordinance took effect, orders fell by 30 percent, and Seattle businesses lost more than $17 million in sales.

Fewer sales meant fewer deliveries, which meant less pay for drivers. One study found that driver earnings per hour dropped 28 percent, prompting the Seattle City Council president to admit the minimum wage fee hurt small business owners, consumers, and…the very drivers it was meant to help. 

All Seattle delivered was disappointment. 

The Year: 1941

The Problem: The Red Army needs to blow up more Germans.

The Solution: Strap explosives to the backs of dogs and train them to run under enemy tanks.å

Sounds seriously depressing…man, this is dark. 

Turns out, it’s easier to train a dog to roll over than it is to make it suicide bomb a 25-ton armored Panzer in an active war zone. 

To conserve fuel, the dogs were trained using stationary Soviet tanks. As a result, many were reluctant to dive under moving vehicles. Some avoided the odd-smelling gasoline-powered German machines—and instead sought out diesel-powered Soviet tanks like the ones they were trained on. Others just returned to their handlers, unleashing chaos in the Soviet trenches.

Eventually, the program was put on paws.