"Unintended consequences" is a rather familar concept, and one that planners and designers of policies in many fields try to be alert to. Perhaps it would be helpful to also consider 'unintended benefits."

While poverty is certainly an objective reality, it occurs in a much larger social context than is generally acknowledged. High rates of poverty can be viewed as symptomatic of much more diffuse societal dysfunction that affects all, or nearly all, of a society in adverse ways.

Janie