And You Don't Love the Parking-Enforcement Department?

Living in a big city as many of us do we sometimes walk out to get our car and either find it booted or towed away. There are probably few jobs in our society less loved than the traffic enforcement-department tow truck driver. I'm surprised that there are neither TV shows or movies ( other than Repo Man) about this occupation.

This weekend reading the book review section in The New York Times I read a wonderful review by Kevin Baker on the book Enemies written by Tim Weiner. In it I learned about an unintended consequence of traffic enforcement tow truck drivers. Baker says that in 1973 the Iraqis planned to kill Golda Meir, the Prime Minister of Israel, on her state visit to New York City. The plot involved two cars packed with explosives that were parked near her route. The unintended consequence of the assassin's mistake of parking the two vehicles in a no parking zone was that before Mrs. Meir arrived the two cars were towed away by city employees.

The fight against terror is normally conducted by James Bondesq agents, high level military planners, and special forces troops. Sometimes the most effective anti-terror actions are taken by tow truck drivers.

Harlan Platt's blog at HarlanPlatt.com contains many more unintended consequences as he supplements the ideas expressed in his new book, Unintended Consequences: How to Improve our Government, our Businesses, and our Lives.