The law of unintended consequences set to a disco beat

I never had the Pet Shop Boys down as economists.... but what do you know? The lyrics of "Twentieth Century" on their new "Fundamental" album could have come straight from a textbook!

I learned a lesson
From the Twentieth Century
That I don't think we can just dismiss
After one hundred years
Of inhumanity
The lesson that I learned was this:

Sometimes the solution
Is worse than the problem