Much of the history of government is the history of “good ideas” that create bad unintended consequences.
You may have read, for instance, that Washington has started forcing community swimming pools around the country to install expensive drain guards to prevent someone from becoming trapped in a drain’s suction and drowning. That seemed like a good idea because there were isolated cases of those tragedies.
But what Congress did not consider was the high cost of the drain guards, and how that new expense might shut down community pools that operate on tight budgets.
In 2009, not even one person in the United States died in a drain-entrapment accident. How many people are apt to die, however, if some community pools close altogether and are unavailable for children who need to learn how to swim? Far more people drown from not knowing how to swim than from getting caught in a pool drain.
Unfortunately, Washington still isn’t considering unintended consequences when it imposes new regulations of various types.
Now, the Transportation Department has proposed mandatory use of rearview cameras in cars and trucks. The hope is that the cameras will reduce the chance that a driver will back over a child whom he might not see in a mirror.
Again, that sounds like a “good idea,” but the required use of rearview cameras might create unintended effects, too. Such cameras don’t always give a wide view of what’s behind a car. What if a driver relies on the cameras exclusively and doesn’t check the surroundings by other means, too? Could the result of that false sense of security actually be more accidents?
And what about the nearly $3 billion cost of installing the cameras? That will make new cars more expensive and will cause some people to buy less safe older vehicles.
News accounts give little indication that Washington is considering all the possible consequences of this pricey new rule. That is sadly all too common.