Dora: 6 GOVERNMENT POLICIES THAT DID NOT WORK OUT WELL Poll Tax The smartest minds in Margaret Thatcher’s government came up with what they thought a fairer tax: one where everybody, rich or poor, paid the same. It led to widespread nonpayment, large-scale riots and eventually Thatcher was forced to resign. Prohibition America’s efforts to ban the drinking of alcohol between 1920 and 1933 did lead to fewer people drinking—but it also allowed organized crime to monopolize the alcohol industry, making crime soar in many places. The Cobra Effect As pest control in Delhi, the British government offered a bounty for dead cobras. So people simply bred cobras to claim the bounty. So the British dropped the bounty. So people turned the worthless cobras loose. Result: more cobras. The Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act As the Great Depression started to bite in 1930, the US introduced large tariffs on imports to try and prop up domestic industries. Instead, the resulting trade war only worsened the global depression. The Duplessis Orphans In Quebec in the 1940s and 1950s, the government offered church groups subsidies to care for both orphans and the mentally ill. But the psychiatric payments were double that for orphans—so thousands of orphans were falsely diagnosed as mentally ill. Hoy No Circula In 1989, Mexico City tried to reduce air pollution by banning particular cars from being driven on certain days. Unfortunately, rather than taking the bus, people just bought more cars so they’d always have one that was legal to drive.

6 GOVERNMENT POLICIES THAT DID NOT WORK OUT WELL Poll Tax The smartest minds in Margaret Thatcher’s government came up with what they thought a fairer tax: one where everybody, rich or poor, paid the same. It led to widespread nonpayment, large-scale riots and eventually Thatcher was forced to resign. Prohibition America’s efforts to ban the drinking of alcohol between 1920 and 1933 did lead to fewer people drinking—but it also allowed organized crime to monopolize the alcohol industry, making crime soar in many places. The Cobra Effect As pest control in Delhi, the British government offered a bounty for dead cobras. So people simply bred cobras to claim the bounty. So the British dropped the bounty. So people turned the worthless cobras loose. Result: more cobras. The Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act As the Great Depression started to bite in 1930, the US introduced large tariffs on imports to try and prop up domestic industries. Instead, the resulting trade war only worsened the global depression. The Duplessis Orphans In Quebec in the 1940s and 1950s, the government offered church groups subsidies to care for both orphans and the mentally ill. But the psychiatric payments were double that for orphans—so thousands of orphans were falsely diagnosed as mentally ill. Hoy No Circula In 1989, Mexico City tried to reduce air pollution by banning particular cars from being driven on certain days. Unfortunately, rather than taking the bus, people just bought more cars so they’d always have one that was legal to drive.

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Humans: A Brief History of How We F*cked It All Up Tom Phillips

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