government has good intentions?

Question

So I need opinions. =] In what situations have the government had good intentions for something, but had a bad outcome?

Answer 1

Prohibition. Created the most alcoholic generation of Americans ever.

Answer 2

While other nations and races have committed similar atrocities throughout history, Anglos have suffered persecution, and slavery and the Native American genocide are in the past, the actions of the United States and its White patriarchal society were still morally reprehensible. Furthermore, many of the beneficiaries and descendents of the perpetrators remain unrepentant. Recent polls and events also indicate that about a third of Americans still support an entrenched American power structure which flourishes by practicing exploitation and conquest.

The United States is not the only nation currently committing brutalities and injustices, yet Washington is home to a government which claims to be the ultimate moral authority on the globe. While invading and occupying nations which posed no threat to them, slaughtering innocent civilians, and torturing suspected enemies, the United States continues to mouth empty platitudes about spreading freedom and democracy, pompously lecture other nations on human rights, and hypocritically determine which nations are too "evil" to be trusted with nuclear technology.

In his recent book, Overthrow, Stephen Kinzer wrote:

There is no stronger or more persistent strain in the American character than the belief that the United States is a nation uniquely endowed with virtue.....This view is driven by a profound conviction that the American form of government, based on capitalism and individual political choice, is, as President Bush asserted, "right and true for every person in every society."

Time and again the United States has acted on this pathological belief, almost always spreading suffering and misery rather than democracy and freedom.

Answer 3

Are you asking in regard to the citizenry, or Corporate America? About the only real thing that our government had good intentions in enacting at the outset was Social Security. But ultimately the thieves got their hands on the cookie jar and robbed it blind. As far as Corporate America is concerned, they essentially own Congress, and until the American people rise up in mass and say enough is enough, and force them to do the right thing, Congress will probably always be their lap dogs.

Answer 4

Government is there to secure the nation's national interests- and that is what the neo cons had on their minds when we attacked Iraq. We can, however, argue over the consequences.

Answer 5

When we tried to rescue the hostages in Iran and the Affirmative Action Policy.

Answer 6

never