What is the best example of ‘The Road to Hell is Paved with Good Intentions.” You have ever experienced?

Student loans. The federal government made them easier to get which led to more people getting them and getting them in larger quantities which led to tuition rates rising and the current daycare system for 18-22 year olds that we have now. They just made the problems so much worse than if they had done nothing.

I’m going to take this quite literally as the first thought that popped into my head was one time when I was around 11ish? I was at a restaurant with my entire extended family ( like 50 people) and the waitress was carrying alot of drinks. I always want to help people, it’s in my nature to try and be useful.
So I said ” I’ll help you!” Even though she was doing her job very well. The panic in her eyes as I lifted up my drink from her server plate. The annoyance as Multiple drinks then tipped due to the imbalance of weight I had just caused.

The apologies were not enough. I felt so bad. It’s been 13 years and I still think about it on occasion. That was my biggest ” oh shit don’t help people if they don’t want it”

Because I was just trying to help. My intentions were good, but man did I cause a massive mess.

A good friend of mine was going through a breakup and I was supporting her and of course we were doing the usual rant about the ex. Cue a few days later and they get back together and now I’m “the asshole who was talking shit behind his back”. So I lost a “friend” because I supported her but c’est la vie that was a lesson learned.

My favorite one was the British in India trying to cut down the number of cobras. They put out a bounty on cobras. Then industrious locals seeing an opportunity to fleece the gringos started breeding cobras for the sole purpose to sell to the British for the bounty. The British officials got wise to what was happening and canceled the bounty program whereupon the locals simply released all of the cobras, exacerbating the problem.

Love of my life left me for someone else over a text message (also happened to be the same night my mother passed from brain cancer but that was somewhat unforeseen). She lost her feelings for me and always insisted she never meant to hurt me, but she still kept me in her back pocket as a hedged bet while starting to see whoever the other guy was. I forgave her long ago but that pain never really fully heals. And a small part of me still loves her all these years later.

No one gets judged on their intentions, no matter how good they are. We are judged on our actions.