June 20, 2002
From the desk of Jane Galt:The law of unintended consequences
The law of unintended consequences in action:
First, the Communist revolution encourages a huge baby boom. Mao dismisses worries about overpopulation by saying "every mouth to feed also comes with two hands and feet." Fails to notice that it does not also come with two acres of arable land, that being the minimum needed to support life in a country dependant on pre-industrial agriculture.
When the Chinese notice that they now have over a billion people, and that the country can't really support two billion in the next generations, they implement the draconian "1 child" policy.
Unintended result: the country now has 40 million more men than women.
Posted by Jane Galt at June 20, 2002 6:17 AM | TrackBack | Technorati inbound links