4 ms·

How exactly have I, a citizen, suffered from the current state of affairs? I get the theoretical argument that all laws should be 100% public but are there any

by harryh 10y ago

How exactly have I, a citizen, suffered from the current state of affairs? I get the theoretical argument that all laws should be 100% public but are there any practical negative effects that you can point to?

convolvatron 10y ago
i've found that particularly with electricians, during negotiations they often deflect discussion by saying 'thats not code.' i'm sure that the majority of the times i've been told that, there was a good basis written down someplace. but not having access to the code further skews an already asymmetric relationship between domain expert/contractor and customer.
- mindslight 10y ago
  There are a lot of things one could do when wiring that seem like they'd be fine, or even actually are fine, but go against code. And reading the code, one really does get the impression that a lot of it was "written in blood". Based on your wording, I don't know if you know this. But presently the issue of practical accessibility is actually moot thanks to the work of Malamud. The NEC, along with many others, is available right here: https://law.resource.org/pub/us/code/ibr/ https://law.resource.org/pub/us/code/ibr/
mindslight 10y ago
Obviously if you don't need anything done that is subject to those laws, then you do not suffer. But, for example, if I didn't have access to the electrical code, I would have been unable to definitively follow the law when running some new power circuits. I would have had to rely on folk guidelines and general engineering knowledge, and could have possibly done something that would cause legal problems down the line. Furthermore, I may have decided that such a thing wasn't worth getting into, and been pushed into hiring an expensive contractor instead. (Also, this excellent comment: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12480626 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12480626)

by harryh 10y ago

convolvatron 10y ago

i've found that particularly with electricians, during negotiations they often deflect discussion by saying 'thats not code.' i'm sure that the majority of the times i've been told that, there was a good basis written down someplace. but not having access to the code further skews an already asymmetric relationship between domain expert/contractor and customer.

mindslight 10y ago
There are a lot of things one could do when wiring that seem like they'd be fine, or even actually are fine, but go against code. And reading the code, one really does get the impression that a lot of it was "written in blood". Based on your wording, I don't know if you know this. But presently the issue of practical accessibility is actually moot thanks to the work of Malamud. The NEC, along with many others, is available right here: https://law.resource.org/pub/us/code/ibr/ https://law.resource.org/pub/us/code/ibr/

mindslight 10y ago

Obviously if you don't need anything done that is subject to those laws, then you do not suffer. But, for example, if I didn't have access to the electrical code, I would have been unable to definitively follow the law when running some new power circuits. I would have had to rely on folk guidelines and general engineering knowledge, and could have possibly done something that would cause legal problems down the line. Furthermore, I may have decided that such a thing wasn't worth getting into, and been pushed into hiring an expensive contractor instead. (Also, this excellent comment: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12480626 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12480626)