I think it all gets back to money. Contractors hire the cheapest labor they can get away with and inspectors carry too much workload to look at everything. We are a cost conscious society and we will sacrifice some quality for a cheaper price.
I agree and while I tended to keep to myself when working on a crew, I picked up on things and have two observations #1 shoddy work can come from any highly skilled electrician when working in a pinch outside their specialty, I have seen a industrial electrician try to repair konb and tube,mess up data cable etc,
and one time I got assigned a residential guy to pipe in a retail store, just me and him, he had never seen a pipe bender or used a hi-lift. lets just say some mistakes were made.
Sometimes the work available is not our skillet and people venture out to learn something new and make mistakes, thats why we need inspection departments.
#2 Someones personal life / legal background has nothing to do with their skills, I have worked around guys that had every certificate/ master inspector license possible but got lost in the bottle or could not keep their nose clean enough do a wire pull. One of the best electricians I worked with was never allowed to drive again due to too many DUI's. But when he was sober he could out pace me in bending pipe all day.
Cheers
