View from the North 40: It's just a long-winded version of 'Oh no, I broke it!'

Our old friend the law of unintended consequences says that actions of people always have effects that are unanticipated or unintended, but basically, it’s just a fancy way of saying “oops.”

Like the law of gravity is an explanation used in the science of physics, the law of unintended consequences comes from the social sciences, such as economics and politics (which are frequent bedfellows, though that does not matter for our purposes here today — I’m just sayin’).

Historian Lynn White Jr. gave us a good example of unintended consequences that involves horses, so of course, it’s one of my fav...