And there are unanticipated consequences. Most of the arsenic in America's water is put there by nature. It is mostly in groundwater in rural, not industrial areas. For an introduction to such reasoning, try a new novel published, implausibly, by the MIT Press. Instructing his class in the unintended consequences of government interventions in complex systems, the young economist tells his class about the elimination of wolves from Yellowstone in the first half of the 20th century.
Wolves eat elk.
Intensified grazing by the exploding elk population stripped vegetation from the banks of streams, including willow and aspen that beavers need for food. Suppose you love pistachio nuts and are given a room filled with them to a level of five feet. But you must eat them in the room and must leave the shells. As it becomes increasingly difficult to find nuts amidst the shells, the nuts will not be free anymore. This is a consequence of regarding a blithe indifference to the costs of moral exhibitionism as evidence of moral superiority.