Newton’s Law of Motion states, “For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.” The same principle also applies to legislative laws when they are implemented. They will have both a positive and negative effect.

Often our society focuses on positive effects and ignores negative effects and is surprised when they inevitably occur. We need to understand that the negative effects are the price we pay for the positive effects. Examples are:

The Second Amendment to the Constitution guarantees the right for all to bear arms. The positive effect is that it gives citizens the right to protect themselves from harm, to engage an enemy invasion and has strong recreational advantages. The negative effect is the misuse of weapons in mass and individual killings.

Deficit government spending in which money is loaned to the government to balance the budget is a positive effect because it provides many necessary services. However, the negative effect is that at some time the money may not be available or is too expensive to use and there will be a cut in essential services that all are used to.