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The law of unintended consequences

No discussion would be complete without a mention of the Law of Unintended Consequences. This is a law of economics that states that any action will have unforeseen effects, and these will usually be the most consequential.

This failure of foresight mainly is based on the use of linear assumptions-the idea that whatever is happening will continue to happen in a straightforward fashion. In reality, people have this habit of adapting to circumstances.

Let us decide, for example, to raise some money for the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism. Let us decide that every person wearing sneakers during next week's class will "contribute" an extra $10,000 in tuition. If we look around and see ...

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