Thanks to Emma Darwin I came across

something called "Goodhart's Law" yesterday. It is something I had not heard of before but Emma found it interesting and it left me pondering it too.

Put simply it is stated as "When a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure." One of the examples given by the internet when I looked it up was how the Soviets once measured the output of a nail factory by the total weight of the nails produced. The factory then produced a smaller number of very heavy and unusable nails to meet the required quota. As this was not working those in charge switched the goal to the number of nails produced. This resulted in factories making millions of tiny and equally useless nails. 

It is an easy to understand example that makes sense to me. It is the way humans will work if they can. I suspect most of us are naturally lazy unless we see some benefit for ourselves.

But Goodhart's Law also works in other ways. We probably would not even see it as being relevant to things like housing or discrimination measures but it might be.

Buying a second house (or more) and then renting it out has been a means of bringing in money for centuries, for as long as people have had houses. Not everyone can afford to do it but those that do are providing a service for those who need a roof over their heads. Yes, I know there are "greedy" landlords out there. I know there are landlords who are renting out sub-standard accommodation for inflated prices. We hear about them all the time. 

There are also landlords, and I suspect they are the majority, who keep the property in good repair and charge a fair rent. They do it because it makes economic sense to do it. This is the way they do not make a loss and may make a small profit. There are people who do it because they see it as the way they will not need to be dependent on a government pension. It makes sense that they should not be penalised for doing this. Recent government changes will penalise them. It might not be to the same degree that future landlords would be penalised but there is still a penalty there. It is going to reduce the number of dwellings available to rent - in a serious housing shortage.

It also makes sense to try and ensure that there are measures in place to ensure that other people will be able to own their own homes if they wish to do so. It makes sense not to put obstacles in the way of home ownership if this is what people want. 

There are also measures which should not be undertaken in order to achieve these goals. It is those measures which the present government is now pursuing. They sound good. Of course they sound good but the reality is that they are not good. 

That person with their "own new build home" on a five percent deposit actually owes more than they will ever be able to pay back. The government effectively owns the home and has restricted their ability to move anywhere else because of the way the scheme is set up.  In an age where many people need to be flexible and change employers in order to keep working this presents problems. There will be other issues later too.  I know of one person who had to continue renting because he knows he could be transferred interstate at any time. The scheme does not help him at all. There are many more people like him. 

In another area there is the law which was intended to ensure there was no sexual discrimination. It was changed to give "rights" to a tiny group of individuals and has now ended up giving rights to nobody at all. 

There are laws around agriculture which were brought in to increase yields and now harm the environment but are still in place. There is the environmental damage done so we can "save the planet from global warming".

It all sounds good but perhaps we should just have a "law of unintended consequences"?