The Cobra Effect
By: Steele Beatty
Sometimes when a rule is put in place and broken, there could be an unintended consequence. This is now called the “Cobra Effect”. This effect was first established in Britain because of the number of deaths caused by wild animals, especially by snakes. For example, in the years 1871 and 1872, 1,033 people lost their life to a venomous snake compared to the 227 people whose death was caused by another wild animal. In few years following, this hazard escalated to an even worse state and the government took a huge notice to it. So the government put a cash reward on any venomous snake brought to the district office in Britain. In 1873 the price was eight annas for each snake. While the snake population started to decrease, the prospect of finding a snake to kill became an even greater challenge. Since the demand for venomous snakes was still great, entrepreneurs started to breed them through mass production and district offices took notice to this when people began bringing snakes in for reward in bags of twenty or more. Once this became a recurring pattern, officials began an investigation and found that multiple residents had been breeding snakes to reap rewards from the government. They immediately dropped the program and the breeders cut their losses and let the snakes go and the supply of snakes increased from that point forward.
The Cobra Effect with
There was a rule set in place for the whole state of Wisconsin that benefitted the entire restaurant, pub, and convenience store industry in the state. Every year hunters have to register their deer they shot at a local gas station, bar, or restaurant. Except for this year the DNR put a new system in that Wisconsin residents can tag their deer online or over the phone which may have sped up the process. This online registration is active in three states: Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Georgia. But that had a huge opportunity cost for businesses in Cornucopia and other cities in northern Wisconsin. It caused a huge deflation in The Village Inn and in The Cornerstone in Cornucopia.
It has destroyed many bars businesses people would sit at the bar and wait for people to bring deer in every night and since everybody registers online nobody comes into the bars anymore. Also most businesses that registered deer hosted contests to see who could bring in the biggest buck that year to embrace the competitive spirit of the season. Now these competitions are no more because nobody brings their deer into town due to the convenience of online registration of their deer. This is just one of the few factors that affect the revenue of these local businesses due to online registration. This registration should be removed from each state because it takes away from the revenue of local businesses that used to register deer.
Works Cited
"The Cobra Effect - Josh Linkner." Josh Linkner. N.p., 14 Mar. 2016. Web. 12 Dec. 2016.
I had no idea that when a deer was shot that it had to be registered at a gas station, bar, or restaurant - probably because I do not hunt. The Cobra Effect was something I had never heard of before, but I understood the issue. I find it interesting that with this new rule set in place that The Village Inn and The Cornerstone in Cornucopia had a deflation, which is their opportunity cost. In addition to that opportunity cost, there have had to been more. The businesses that hosted the competitions for the largest bucks, I would agree probably lost a lot of business considering that everything can be done at home, but a question I wonder, is how many people are actually registering their deer online? How can the government make sure that people are taking care of things that are required, without the government taking an opportunity cost themselves. Overall, I learned a lot through this blog post and I find it interesting that technology is continually allowing people more ease with their daily lives.
ReplyDeleteAs a person that has confrontation with the Wisconsin DNR and the deer registration process I have first hand experience of business being lost. Many of the places I went to for registration of deer would be booming this business during the hunting seasons. This new rule for registration definitely saves money for the DNR, but also can lead to problems like people not registering there deer and problems with understanding the new process. This could lead to a miscount of deer then a miscount of tags distributed, too many deer killed and eventually few deer. Few deer means less hunters, less hunters means less money and less money leads to loss for the DNR!
ReplyDeleteAs a person who doesn't hunt, I never knew anything about deer registration until now. I find it kinda funny how people use to just randomly bring in deer into restaurants, bars or gas stations, to get them registered, imagine seeing that. Although it's a shame for local businesses that the DNR was created because now they'll hardly get customers for deer registration. Altough, it's a positive for the hunters since they can register their deer in a much easier and faster way.
ReplyDeleteWow!!!! This blog post is one of the best I have ever read I mean I just get life now it all makes sense. If this post doesn't get a 4 no other post can even come close to a 4. This post just has such a good topic it goes in such a wide range the could piece off into many other conversation topics like Conner said in his comment it could talk about some other things.
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