It also creates a sort of backstop of accountability. If you wire something wrong and it starts a fire, you're sued. If you don't have any money, your insurance

It also creates a sort of backstop of accountability. If you wire something wrong and it starts a fire, you're sued. If you don't have any money, your insurance company is sued. And if your insurance company doesn't want to be sued so much, it makes sure you have a certification or a license or basic professional degrees of competence before insuring you. And to make it all seem like it operates on a fair and level playing field, some independent entity has to verify that the requirements for licensing are met. And I think we all know what that has meant, historically: multiple choice tests graded by a Scantron machine.