If I owned a house, I'd rather have fuses in my panel instead of circuit-breakers. With a huge main "kife switch" right after the meter to positively shut off all power to the house.
While I agree with RSmike on the advantage of fuses over circuit breakers when it comes to reliability, consider this:
Breakers prevent idiots from replacing plug fuses with coins and slugs, and also using bits of wire to bridge the clips on cartridge fuse holders.
