CA politicians ignore the potential pitfalls of countless laws

From And WaltersCalmness

This comment was originally published by CalmattersS Register about their ballots.

Sociologist Robert Merton Developed the term “unwanted consequences” in an essay of 1936, exploring how people take action that they think will have positive results, but later learn that they have negative effects. Someone could – and should – write a book about seemingly countless cases of adverse effects of the decrees issued by the legislators and managers of California.

Perhaps the most spectacular example is unscrupulous “California’s electricity system” deregulation 29 years ago, adopted by legislators of both countries and the then city. Pete Wilson. Defenders welcomed the major repair as a bold act that will guarantee wide power supply while reducing utility bills for consumers.

However, it was an inappropriate disaster that invited the manipulation of the electricity market and increased costs. He immersed the Pacific gas and electricity in bankruptcy and pushed southern California Edison to the edge of bankruptcy.

It is strange that this did not limit the desire of California politicians to season how their voters receive and pay for electricity. This year’s example is Senate Bill 540a contradictory measure that would be if it was in force California has joined a regional electricity consortium with unpredictable consequences.

There are other basic examples of legislation that has turned and worth noting.

One is Assembly Bill 218A 2019 bill, which temporarily terminated the statute of limitations for sexual abuse. Proponents said it would allow the victims to finally get justice, leaving aside criticism that it would be a bonan for lawyers. Hundreds of cases have been filed against local authorities and school systems, resulting in multi -billion -dollar settlementsincluding a $ 4 billion paying off from Los Angeles County Set up 6,800 claims from former foster children and former minors.

The management of abuse costumes also distorted the ability of public subjects to Acquisition of liability insuranceS The author of the bill, the former member of the Assembly Lorena Gonzalez, has called for changes.

“When the author of AB 218, my priority was to protect children from sexual abuse and to guarantee that victims can have some justice, “Gonzalez, now head of the California Federation of Trade Unions,” said in the social media publicationS “Now some unscrupulous lawyers treat him as a rage. I support reforms to limit the fees of lawyers or other measures to redirect public subjects’ costs.”

There are many other current examples of potentially harmful consequences, including late flowering efforts by governor Gevin Newom and democratic legislators to change-at the same time, say the-52 congresses in California to produce more democratic members and compensates for the Republican Gerimander’s Republican Gerimander.

Electricity and Gerimander measures are not the only pieces of pending litigation with potentially negative consequences. Two of them include school operations.

One is A assembly Bill 1264aimed at Eliminate ultra -processed foods Of the millions of dishes, public schools serve their students.

Defenders say such foods adversely affect the health of children, which is certainly legitimate question if provenS Critics, however, claim that legislation that sets defining such foods for a state agency may ban foods that Californians usually consume and lead to a flood of court cases, not unlike what has happened after the law of violence against Gonzalez children has entered into force.

The other is A assembly bill 495Which would extend the list of people who could take over the management of students in public schools in the absence of their parents or certain persons who care for them. It is aimed at protecting children from parents who have been swept away in the repression of the federal government for undocumented immigrants. However, critics say that almost anyone could claim to be a replacement caregiver under the free definition of legislation, thus potentially threatening children and not protecting them.

As Merton pointed out in his essay, defenders of new policies or programs always emphasize their positive intentions while downplay or ignoring the risk of reduction. This is a dangerous syndrome, as politicians in California had to learn already.

This article was Originally Published on CalMatters and was reissued under Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Noderivatives License.