Unintended Consequences need Consideration

Nearly everyday I read & research what's going on in our world and I think about how it will effect our future. I discover I'm not alone but like others like me, we realize some people are not breaking down the big picture. After all, it's like putting together a 1000 piece puzzle without knowing what the picture is. You only start to see the picture as you are able to connect the pieces together. Like puzzles, life's pieces connect together in many ways and if the pieces aren't put together carefully, the picture will be distorted. Always make sure you have all the pieces of the puzzle before making a decision on spending the time, money and resources to put it together.

Puzzles come in boxes. So, you have to open the box to begin putting the puzzle together. But, it's also important to think outside the box as intended results often come with unintentional consequences, sometimes just the opposite of the objective. Here's an example:

Environmentalists got a law passed that banned the use of syrofoam in floating docks on the lake because birds eat it and unfortunately cannot digest it properly. Seems like a good law. However, if you already had Styrofoam you had to replace it, even though the styrofoam is under the wood and in the water. The environmentalists didn't think about this important fact: What happens to Styrofoam when you rip it off of something it's attached to? After this law was passed and people began to remove the styrofoam from their docks; styrofoam was everywhere. I had never seen so much styrofoam floating around in the lake, on the surface of the water, easly available for the birds to consume. Exactly the opposite of what the environmentalists intended, not to mention the economic cost to the people that were forced to remove the styrofoam.

If you think you see the big picture, take it apart before you put it together.