Purposeful Understaffing

"Job eliminations. Sometimes they're necessary, like when a job is actually obsolete, but usually businesses don't do that and will carve out a bunch of jobs to save money."

"The thing is, while cutting payroll definitely helps short-term (payroll is almost always the most expensive item on a company's books), it actually severely damages long-term growth and cash flow."

"For example, if I run a restaurant and I dismiss a line cook to save on payroll, that means the remaining cooks have more to do, which adds stress."

"Worse, if I dismissed my highest paid cook, who had the best ability at cooking, I've also reduced the quality of my restaurant."

"And then, I've led to increased wait times since food takes longer to get from kitchen to table. This translates to lower table turnover, more stress on my visible staff (servers, wait-staff, etc), but longer lines at my restaurant..."

"And that contributes the worst of all - captive customers leaving my restaurant during peak hours because I can't get them a table and out on their way with full bellies in a reasonable time."

"Super long lines at a restaurant indicate one of two things: 1 - the food is really that good and not only worth the wait and money, but worth not turning the tables as fast (because you'll still be serving people after peak hours and still be serving people tomorrow) or 2 - the tables aren't being turned fast enough, almost always because the restaurant is understaffed."

"A restaurant that is consistently understaffed like that will almost always result in a breakdown and eventual closure of the restaurant."-betterthanamaster

Ah, Our Complex Foreign Policy

"About the same time as the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, the United States began collaborating with Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) to provide several hundred million dollars a year in aid to the Afghan Mujahideen insurgents fighting the Afghan pro-Soviet government and the Soviet Army in Operation Cyclone."

"Along with native Afghan mujahideen were Muslim volunteers from other countries, popularly known as 'Afghan Arabs.'"

"The most famous of the Afghan Arabs was Osama bin Laden, known at the time as a wealthy and pious Saudi who provided his own money and helped raise millions from other wealthy Gulf Arabs."-Fenderbyname

Almost Like The Pied Piper

"The rat control problem where the country's ruler promised rewards if people can give them rat tails as proof of eradicating them."

"People just instead bred them and only cut the tails."-blocksoficedcoffee

The first thing to be prepared for when finding a solution is that it will not work the way you want it to--so foresight is necessary.

Thanks Reagan

"The war on drugs has also been destroying Central America beyond repair, just so parents in the 'Western world' may one day stop worrying that their children are getting their hands on illegal drugs."

"Maybe try parenting instead. But hey, what's a million mexicans here and there, as long as little, white Stuart is kept off the coke."-Ninjafingers84

But We Criminalize Poverty

"In a lot of cases, prison. You live a life of crime because you fall in with the wrong crowd and/or are destitute."

"So they lock you up with a bunch of other criminals, without any means of making money, and give you a criminal record that makes it exponentially harder to find a job when you leave."

"People live a life of crime, because often there's no way out. Prison just becomes collateral."-AlterEdward

Abuse Isn't Parenting

"Spanking can correct behavior but causes long term issues among many children. I see a lot of people defend it because they turned out fine."

"I'm not judging people who pop a child on the diapered bum once or twice. It's the parents who regularly give their child a hard spanking. It's been proven over and over again that it leads to long term mental and emotional issues."-maid-for-hire

The USA Strikes Again

"CIA took over Iran and installed the Shah to keep oil flowing. Decades later the US is dealing with radical Islam because of our 'victory.'"

"Also oil related; in the 1950s someone thought it would be a great idea to add lead to gasoline to make cars run smoother. Poisoned the air, and many people now believe that it lead to the rise in street crime through the 1970s."-doowgad1

Do a lot of the problems we are living through now as a society suddenly make sense to you?

Nothing Solved

"In an early environmental move, citrus farmers in Florida were told to stop burning tires in their groves. Burning tires prevented frost damage."

"The farmers were sold environmentally better burning pots to do the same thing. Then the farmers had the tires collected and taken to the dump. At the dump the tires were burned."-FrankieMint

Un-Exposure Therapy

"Avoiding things you're scared of. Well, at least if it's things that a functioning person should be able to do. Like, you don't need to go bungee jumping to lead a normal life."

"I'm talking about things like social interaction, public transportation, leaving the house... Things that become a huge problem if you can't do them anymore due to massive anxiety."

"Avoidance works as a short-term solution to reduce anxiety, but it actually makes things worse in the long run."-I-just-wanna-talk-

The Soul Of A Nation

"Banning drugs. People will get it from gangs, it's better that the government provides them the fix, and then helps them get off of the drugs, than a dealer to hook them and either get them to do dirty work, or they get into crime to pay for their next fix."

"Banning all abortion. We all know of the coat hanger memes, but it is based on a real thing. If you ban all abortion, all you are banning is safe abortion."

"People will do back alley, illegal, nonsterile abortions and a lot of people will be hurt. Best way to reduce abortion is to educate kids and teens about sex and safety, provide free contraception, increase education and overall quality of living, and most abortions will stop."

RaccKing21