As usual, Yiddish has a word for it: ..as does economics, ironically enough.
"Negative returns." At first one gets *positive returns* on one's investment, more water = healthy plant. These returns usually have less of an impact the more one gives = *diminishing returns* (which are still positive only not as significant), but after some point one might actually over-invest, yielding *negative returns*. In fact watering a plant to death is one of the textbook examples of this. And yes, it can be considered "overkill". And if the plant was supposed to be for your mother...oy-yoy-yoy is probably also appropriate. Another example of diminishing then negative returns is hiring more workers in a plant. At first they might lead to increased division of labor and enhanced productivity, but after a while those gains decrease PER worker. But if you hire many workers there might actually be too many there, they start tripping over each other, or develop a culture of laziness or there is more time spent training new workers than actually working. Diminishing returns were mentioned earlier, but they are still positive. They don't actually have the opposite effect, just less of the desired effect. Pushing the string refers not to having either the opposite or desired effect but having either a useless/irrelevant effect or no effect. While sociology doesn't have a word for this phenomenon, some might argue that unintended consequences might be appropriate, since they often refer to causes having the opposite effect. For example, people buy guns for safety and end up more likely to fall victim to a violent crime. But it is not a measure of relative volume, only causality. (one act = one effect, good or bad) Take Care, BERNiE P.S. If there are any economists on the list (of which I am not one), feel free to correct me.
ONGEPOTCHKET: Messed up, slapped together without form, excessively and unesthetically decorated. OY-YOY-YOY: An exclamation of sorrow and lamentation. ... www.sbjf.org/sbjco/schmaltz/yiddish_phrases.htm
If you don't like that, what about hyper-baroque
Barry _____________________________________________________________________
Barry Wellman Professor of Sociology NetLab Director wellman at chass.utoronto.ca http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~wellman
Centre for Urban & Community Studies University of Toronto 455 Spadina Avenue Toronto Canada M5S 2G8 fax:+1-416-978-7162 To network is to live; to live is to network _____________________________________________________________________
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