Kind of makes you think ... like "How on earth did I ever survive growing up?
Let's see .... the 30's.... America on the verge of becoming a true world leader, in everything 'positive,' and destined to fight - and defeat - those who held a much darker view of the future.
In short order, we defined the limits in the sciences, in engineering, in construction, in productivity - and don't forget, PROSPERITY.
Now let's fast-forward to today. these days, the great feats of construction and engineering are taking place in China, Malaysia, India, and the United Arab Emirates. Our academia and medical research is dominated by foreigners only temporarily visiting the USA. Our corporations are increasingly gobbled up by firms based in such economic powerhouses as France, Brazil, and Argentina.
How did we let this happen?
Well, perhaps we adopted the methods of those we defeated earlier: the society that is centrally planned and directed by anonymous and unaccountable apparatchiks.
"Safety" has been perverted into a bludgeon, used to cow the masses into blind conformity and the aping of the party line. Special interests just can't wait to insert their agenda into rules for others to follow, while code publishers piously assert copyright over the law.
It's not about "safety" (whatever that is), but about who's in control, who gets to make the decisions.
Look at "our" NEC: today it adamantly requires the use of a product that science (physics) plainly states cannot ever possibly work at household voltages. The NEC also mandates a home phone jack - a recent requirement - at a time when the home phone is becoming as common as buggy whips.
