> The French thought that this was a good idea because they had a policy of trying to encourage entrepreneurialism in Vietnam. It seems that the natives were a

> The French thought that this was a good idea because they had a policy of trying to encourage entrepreneurialism in Vietnam. It seems that the natives were already a lot more enterprising than the French had thought. I had heard of the story of the Cobra Effect[1] but the Hanoi Rat Masscacre is a much better documented example of the Perverse Incentive phenomenon. It also strikes me as an example of Goodhart's Law[2] in effect. 1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perverse_incentive#The_original_cobra_effect https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perverse_incentive#The_origina... 2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goodhart%27s_law https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goodhart%27s_law