Hooked on Students

When I taught public policy, one of the key ideas I tried to put across was that when you create a public policy, you create a system, and vice versa. One of the reasons, I argued, that policies often produced surprising effects was that the links between different parts of these systems were not well understood.

Governments necessarily operate bureaucratically, which means that the types of systems they run are disguised by the myriad classes and classifications they use to process reality. Usually, the insiders know what is going on, although for those in government trying to keep control of it all, it may take time to catch up with some effects. But for those on the outside, it is much more difficult to piece the data together.

A prime example is the relationship between Australia’s immigration programs and national population build-up. Like many people, I had assumed the rapidity of Australia’s population growth was largely a result of our official migration program—which…