Morals of the Moment
That post focused on tech development with behavior change for the worse. In this post, rather than tech, I focus on good intentions that give no thought to second steps, or how a system may change. These good intentions backfire.
Let’s look at the unintended outcomes of otherwise well-meaning system changes in education, forest management, and hiring.
If higher levels of education would help this economic evolution happen faster, how could the government improve its young citizens’ chances? Make it easier to pay for college tuition with student loans.
But student loans are different from other types of loans. The lender does not consider the creditworthiness of the students or the new earning ability their chosen degrees may provide them to repay the loans. It’s quite easy to take out a student loan in comparison to other types.
“After decades of no-questions-asked lending, the government is realizing that it has a pile of toxic debt on its books. By comparison, private lenders lost $535 billion on subprime-mortgages during the 2008 financial crisis…
