 And now, great moments and unintended consequences. Part one, the money train. The year, 1862. The problem? Well, yeah, sure, but the other problem, there's no railroad connecting coastal elites. The solution, pay rail companies for each mile of track laid for a brand new transcontinental railroad. Sounds like a great idea, with the best of intentions. What could possibly go wrong? While Congress has never been great at keeping an eye on spending, it's even worse during a civil war. With no one looking, the Union Pacific unnecessarily lengthened their route, adding miles of track and pocketing almost half a million dollars. After two and a half years of construction, the Union Pacific laid track all the way from Omaha to 40 miles outside of Omaha. I choo choo chooze to screw taxpayers. Part two, burning cash. The year, 2012. The problem? An over-reliance on fossil fuels in Northern Ireland. The solution? A subsidy for heat generated from renewable sources. Sounds like a great idea, with the best of intentions. What could possibly go wrong? Well, it turns out that the rate paid by the subsidy was greater than the costs of the fuel being used. So the more wood pellets you burn, the greater your profit. Voila, the Cash for Ash program, with farmers heating empty buildings just to collect a paycheck. The resulting fallout included Northern Ireland's First Minister refusing to stand aside during any inquiry, the Deputy First Minister resigning in protest, the dissolution of the Northern Ireland Assembly and the collapse of the executive branch for almost three full years. Not to mention a whole lot of taxpayer dollars up in smoke. Part three. All right, fine, we'll do the Cobra thing. The year? Sometime in the 19th century, maybe not sure. Might not actually be true, who knows? The problem? The English colonial city of Delhi is infested with venomous cobras. The solution? Give money to anyone who brings in a dead cobra. Sounds like a great idea, with the best of intentions. What could possibly go wrong? It didn't take long for folks to realize that the bounty paid for a dead cobra was greater than the cost of raising a cobra. Once city officials got wind of lucrative snake breeding farms, they repealed the bounty, leading cobra farmers to release their now worthless snakes into the wild. And that result? More cobras than ever, a lot of wasted cash, and a book by some German guy with a title that sounds straight out of G.I. Joe. While the veracity of the cobra story is hard to pin down, there was a documented problem in Hanoi and a French colonial rule. Only this time the issue was rats, with a bounty paid for every rat tail brought to authorities. It wasn't long before colonial officials began to notice rats without tails. Having been set free by rat catchers with a basic understanding of economics. But don't worry, we learned our lesson and it never happened again. Fort Benning, Georgia, where the feral pig population was out of control. The bounty, for some forehead slapping reason, was pig tails, which once again, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, more pigs. They eventually discontinued the bounty, so don't worry, everything's swine now. Great moments and unintended consequences, good intentions, bad results.