# Is there a term for when a cure or solution to a problem becomes a bigger problem

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-term-for-when-a-cure-or-solution-to-a-problem-becomes-a-bigger-problem/839472>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [August 30, 2019, 12:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-term-for-when-a-cure-or-solution-to-a-problem-becomes-a-bigger-problem/839472 "2019-08-30T12:39:31Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![FollowMeDown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/6a8cbe/32.png) [@FollowMeDown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FollowMeDown)\
**Post date:** [August 30, 2019, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-term-for-when-a-cure-or-solution-to-a-problem-becomes-a-bigger-problem/839472/21 "2019-08-30T21:16:31Z")

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Scorched earth.

Now that you asked the question I feel there should be an exact term for this.

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**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\
**Post date:** [August 30, 2019, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-term-for-when-a-cure-or-solution-to-a-problem-becomes-a-bigger-problem/839472/22 "2019-08-30T21:22:11Z")

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The colloquial name is “old lady who swallowed a fly syndrome”.

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**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\
**Post date:** [August 30, 2019, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-term-for-when-a-cure-or-solution-to-a-problem-becomes-a-bigger-problem/839472/23 "2019-08-30T21:54:22Z")

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Collateral damage.

My Daddy used to call it a ‘clusterfuck’, or ‘Beckdawrek’

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**Author:** ![Satchmo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/satchmo/32/4223_2.png) [@Satchmo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Satchmo)\
**Post date:** [August 30, 2019, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-term-for-when-a-cure-or-solution-to-a-problem-becomes-a-bigger-problem/839472/24 "2019-08-30T22:18:53Z")

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I’ve also heard ‘emergent behaviour’ related to the cobra example. Though that doesn’t strictly have to have negative results, just unexpected/non-obvious ones. Flocking in birds or schools of fish can be modeled by a few very simple rules.

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**Author:** ![Dioptre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/278dde/32.png) [@Dioptre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dioptre)\
**Post date:** [August 30, 2019, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-term-for-when-a-cure-or-solution-to-a-problem-becomes-a-bigger-problem/839472/25 "2019-08-30T23:19:10Z")

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Edward Tenner used the term “Revenge Effect”. See short book review at:  
[this link.](http://pne.people.si.umich.edu/kellogg/064a.html)

He was mainly talking about technological solutions to problems making the problem worse. It’s a narrower category than “unintended consequence” because an unintended consequence can be sideways rather than backwards.

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**Author:** ![Aspidistra](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aspidistra/32/3894_2.png) [@Aspidistra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Aspidistra)\
**Post date:** [August 31, 2019, 12:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-a-term-for-when-a-cure-or-solution-to-a-problem-becomes-a-bigger-problem/839472/26 "2019-08-31T00:15:08Z")

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Now that we’ve had sufficient on-topic replies, lets have a nice [poem](http://www.telelib.com/authors/D/DennisCJ/verse/backblockballads/grimbles.html)

> [@C J Dennis](#):
>
> _First it was the Grimble Grubs,  
> Which they et his ’taters,  
> Then it was the Wuzzle Swooks—  
> Plague of cultivators—  
> Then it was the Guffer Birds,  
> Native of Mauritius,  
> Then it was the Warty Swunks,  
> Beady-eyed an’ vicious,  
> Then it was the Boggle Dogs,  
> With their snarls and snortin’,  
> Till the bad ferocious Gnad  
> Finished his importin’.  
> An’ all because the Grimble Grubs  
> They got into his ’taters,  
> We never found a stitch of him  
> But blucher boots and gaiters._

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