Jr. Patriot Report - June 2026

John Stumpner

Unintended Consequences

The story comes from India when it was a British colony. The government offered to pay a bounty for cobras and other deadly snakes. The local people then started raising cobras to turn in for bounty money. When the government realized what was happening, the bounty program was ended. The people raising snakes let them slither away and the snake problem became worse than ever. An economist, Horst Siebert called this “the Cobra Effect.”

The Cobra Effect is an example of what is called “unintended consequences.” Unintended consequences are unexpected things that happen when a procedure is changed or a new law or policy is adopted. These consequences don't always have to be bad. Inventors and entrepreneurs make money for themselves by developing new products and services. As a result, the lives of their customers often become better and easier. For example, Jeff Bezos started Amazon to make money for himself. In the process not only did he make himself rich, but his new way of mail ordering merchandise made it easy to obtain a dizzying variety of products. (18th century economist, Adam Smith, called this type of consequence the “Invisible Hand”).

We usually refer to the unintended consequences of actions taken by our government or large companies. In the early twentieth century, Prohibition was passed in the United States and beer, wine and liquor consumption was made illegal. People still wanted their beer and cocktails though and, as a result, huge criminal gangs started to provide the demand for liquor. The unintended consequences of violence and lawbreaking got so bad that Prohibition had to be repealed.

The worst unintended consequences usually occur when a decision is made as a result of an emotional desire to “do something” to fix some real or imagined problem. Politicians and government officials are most prone to this type of rash decision making. They often feel pressure from special interest groups and the media to do something about a problem right now and do not use critical thinking to look at all the possible results of their decisions. A good example of this is the push by some politicians to get rid of gasoline and diesel engines and make everything run on electricity. One example of the unintended consequences of going all electric is that electric cars are heavier than other cars, resulting in faster tire wear and more wear and tear on roads and bridges. As tires wear out, tiny pieces of rubber enter the environment, as much a pollutant as exhaust fumes. The asphalt used to repair roads is a petroleum product and cement manufacturing is a major contributor to carbon dioxide emissions.

Through our lobbying efforts, ABATE of Wisconsin wants to help our state legislature avoid unintended consequences of decisions on the future of transportation in Wisconsin. By asking our government to ensure that all sources of power, gas, diesel and electric be

 available, we hope to avoid the unintended consequences of using only one power source. This will allow the economists and engineers to determine what works best and is most economical. It also allows people to adopt and purchase new technologies as they become available to meet their personal needs and budget.

John