Actions always have effects that are unanticipated or unintended.
Merton's 1936 paper. His categories still hold: ignorance, error, immediate interest overriding long-term, basic values, and self-defeating prediction. The last is the most interesting and the least discussed.
In practice
- A subsidy for domestic manufacturing raises input costs for domestic manufacturers who buy the subsidised good.
- A rule requiring three quotes for every purchase costs more in staff time than it saves on small items, and nobody intended that.
- Subject
- Design & Systems
- Essay
- The limits every design runs into