Fake problems

Solutions in search of troubles Guest writer

We often despair that we have so many social problems that can’t be solved, but I’ve gotten even more concerned over the opposite: solutions we implement to solve problems that don’t actually exist.

Voter ID is a good example, in response to a supposed problem of illegal voters showing up at polling stations and pretending to be legitimate voters who haven’t yet voted. To prevent this problem, state after state has created laws requiring voters to show “proper” identification in order to cast a ballot.

Qualified voters who lack acceptable identification (e.g., a driver’s license) are prevented from exercising their franchise. And in some cases, states have made it difficult for such people to obtain acceptable IDs. Thus, this “solution” creates serious problems.

Making matters worse, however, every serious study of voter impersonation at polling stations indicates there is virtually no problem to be solved. The most recent study of a 15-year period in which Americans cast a billion ballots, the researchers were able to identify 31 cases of possible impersonation. Thus, Voter ID laws are a perfect example of solutions for which there is no problem.

Anti-marijuana laws have supposedly prevented “reefer madness” and other frightening threats. With the growing legalization of marijuana, it should have become obvious to all that the imagined problems did not exist. People die from tobacco and alcohol, but it seems no one dies from marijuana. However, the “solution” to this imagined problem has ruined the lives of hundreds of thousands of usually young Americans.

Laws specifying rigorous requirements for abortion clinics presumably address risks to women’s health. For example, abortion providers may be required to have “admitting privileges” at nearby hospitals—which, in turn, are often discouraged from granting such privileges. In theory, such laws would guarantee that women who might suffer a medical emergency would be admitted to the nearby hospital. However, since the time of the Reagan administration, hospital emergency rooms are required to treat anyone in need, whether their physician has “admitting privileges” or even if the person in need has no physician. The effect of this “solution” is to reduce the number of legal abortion clinics (often the real intent of such laws) and force women to seek back-alley abortions at greater real risks.

Sometimes, wars have been the solution to nonexistent problems. The United States invaded Iraq in 2003 because Saddam Hussein was presumably about to attack the U.S. with “weapons of mass destruction.” As we subsequently learned, that “problem” did not really exist, but we are still paying the price of the “solution” 15 years later. Decades prior to the Iraq invasion, the U.S. greatly escalated the war in Vietnam because the North Vietnamese reportedly had fired torpedoes at American ships in the Gulf of Tonkin. Later analyses have concluded the “torpedoes” were merely static on the radar, and the ships believed to be attacking were actually on their way to dry-dock for repairs.

The War of 1812 offers examples of this perverse phenomenon. One of the main reasons for our declaration of war against Britain was the practice of impressment: The Brits would board American ships at sea and take away any seamen suspected of being British deserters—even though some were American citizens. Ironically, however, by the time the U.S. declared war, Britain had given up the practice.

The end of that war was equally bizarre. The British attacked New Orleans in an attempt to bring America to its knees. As we know, the battle turned out badly for Britain, which suffered some 2,100 dead and wounded and 500 taken prisoner, compared to our 13 deaths. However, the British attack was launched two weeks after the peace treaty ending the war had been signed.

The creation of damaging “solutions” to nonexistent “problems” is hardly new. The Salem Witch Trials of 1692 killed nearly two dozen citizens accused of committing all sorts of evil deeds.

Witches did not actually exist in Salem, however, nor were they real during the Black Death in 1300s Europe. In that earlier case, the “solution” involved the execution of supposed witches, plus their cats, which was good news for the rats whose fleas actually carried the plague.

The list of solutions without problems continues to grow daily, and I have detailed many of them online at soluprobs.com.