The Law of Unexpected Results

Can government solve societies ills? Can it do away with poverty, racism and illiteracy? Is it the vehicle with which the world will become a better place to live? Not according to the Law of Unexpected Results.
In Paul Johnson's Modern Times, he makes one or two comments about this law. According to the Law of Unexpected Results a law or policy is put forth to solve a certain problem or injustice in society. The law is appealing to the people who think that injustices should be done away with. The media proclaims the law to be sound and surely the right thing to solve the problem. But interestingly, as the law or policy begins to unfold and begins to operate it does not do what it was professed to do. Sometimes it may create more difficulties. To the people, the law seems to be inadequate or faulty. It appears to fall short of the intended results. What is the Law of Unexpected Results: Laws and policies intended to solve societal ills fail.
But why do they fail? Government officials promise, if we take these steps to fix the problem, it will be great for the nation. The War on Poverty has not eliminated poverty. Affirmative Action has not helped the minorities. The No Child Left Behind Act continues to leave children behind. Why do these policies fail? Three basic ideas seem to be at the core of these failures. First: Just because the results were unexpected for the people does not mean the results were unexpected to the creator of the law. Second: Ideas are based on premises. If a premise is false, the ideas built on the premise cannot come to fruition. Lastly and simply: Arbitrary laws, which favor some at the expense of others, do not work.
Look at the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB). Most would agree the outcome of this law is not what was intended. But has it created what was expected for those that championed it? The only real beneficiaries of this law are those involved in the educational testing and curriculum industries. Was the law really created to help students or corporations? From the beginning it has put tremendous emphasis on assessment. The results of this law may not be what students, parents and teachers wanted, but they did not write the law.
Let's continue with the NCLB. Who came up with the idea that if we assess students more they will learn more? Is that true? When you build a law on a false premise it will not produce a true outcome. Think of the more basic premise: Who is responsible for public education? Is it the federal government or the state or local government? Who is responsible for an individual's education? Is it the teacher, the parent or the student? If the responsibility lies with the student, why is education compulsory?
Is NCLB an arbitrary law? Arbitrary means at random without reason. A good test to determine if a law is arbitrary is to examine whether the law favors some at the expense of others. The NCLB was designed to focus on the disabled and disadvantaged students. The students who excel and succeed receive no benefits from this law.
I believe these huge thousand-page laws coming out of Washington, are corrupt, false and arbitrary. The results for the people in general remain the same. They do not and ca not solve problems. Most problems that government tries to solve would be best taken care of by the individual.
Now who knows what will result of our new Health Care Reform bill. But according to the Law of Unexpected Results, it will not be to reform health care. It is obviously an law designed with corruption, based on the idea that health care is a right and arbitrarily favors some at the expense of others.
Can government solve societies ills? No. We wish it could, then it would absolve us as individuals from the responsibility. Government can protect life, liberty and property. Unfortunately, most in Washington continue to try social engineering. They continue to create chaos in the form of these crazy laws. Next time a law comes around professing to solve everyone's problems, apply the Law of Unexpected Results. I think you will find it interesting.