1. The Curse of Oil Riches. https://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/02/13/avoiding-the-curse-of-the-oil-rich-nations/

It is counterintuitive that something as lucrative as oil, which is one of the world’s most important resources, is causing so many economic and political problems. Since the industrial revolution, oil is used to power most of the technological advancements made and that are continuing to be made. It is used to generate electricity, provide heating in buildings, essential to cars and all other transportation methods, and is running the world as we know it. 

The problem with oil can be summed by an old adage: “More money, more problems.” While oil can provide countries with a huge economic boost because of how valuable it is, it also weakens the country by lowering jobs and accountability, while increasing corruption, competition with other countries, and dependence on one resource. 

It goes against another old adage, “don’t put all your eggs in one basket.” The dependence that countries have once they find oil makes it hard to have a balance of other things in your economy meaning if you run out of oil, you will have no other resource to bounce back.  

2.) Go To Trial, Crash the System https://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/11/opinion/sunday/go-to-trial-crash-the-justice-system.html?_r=0

It is counterintuitive that people using their constitutional and legal rights would result in the government being overwhelmed. While the government has provided every citizen with the right to a trial in front of a jury, most criminal cases are solved by a plea deal in which the defendant pleads guilty in exchange for a lesser sentence. However, if no one decided to take the plea deal and chose to exercise their right to a trial, courts would be overwhelmed by the number of cases and be forced to be less strict with their prosecution. 

Forcing the government to be less strict with their prosecution is ill-advised, however. By making the government less strict, the crime rate will increase heavily because people can get away with more things. Laws on drugs are set in place to limit people’s usage of them because of how bad they are for you. With the government unable to prosecute drug users without the risk of them overwhelming themselves, death rates from drugs will increase because many drug users are only stopped by two things: death or government intervention. 

3.) Improve Doctor Accountability https://www.propublica.org/getinvolved/medical-errors-chat

It is counterintuitive that so many patients are being harmed in the hospital, a place intended for the exact opposite. Increasing accountability for doctors, however, doesn’t seem like the correct solution because there is already enough accountability through malpractice. Many patient deaths don’t even fall under malpractice because they are in the hospital for terminal illnesses or other untreatable cases. Malpractice cases have steep penalties because if you mess up on a patient, you are at risk of losing your certification and ability to work in health care which means forfeiting the years put into earning that. This means that increasing accountability would also make many people more fearful and hesitant of going into healthcare, a profession that desperately needs more people especially since the COVID-19 pandemic.