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> It may be less obvious why the state cares who runs pet shops, inseminates cattle, or performs zoological taxidermy, but if you read the applicable laws, you'
by platz 5y ago
> It may be less obvious why the state cares who runs pet shops, inseminates cattle, or performs zoological taxidermy, but if you read the applicable laws, you'll learn that animal welfare and protection of endangered species have many and obscure corner cases.
But how did many those laws come to be?
Is it because the state cares about these professions a-priori, or because established players in those industries lobbied to restrict who can enter the profession in order to protect their market position and comparative advantage?
And yes, the latter can be true while also it leading to an outcome that produces higher quality than if thise laws were not there - but quality may not have been the reason the laws were proposed in the firt place.
- bregma 5y agoAre you saying we're safe from exploding toilets because of regulatory capture by a few corrupt individuals? Bring on the corruption!
- platz 5y agoIm not trying to establish a categorical imperative that applies to everything, such as toilets, but may make sense in certain industries (maybe zoological taxidermy)? The larger point is why the software industry has avoided regulatory capture or eschews certification in contrast to other markets. In other words, more boadly, is it the government that pushes for these laws, or the market that demands/asks for them? (Also, it might helpful to differentiate B2B vs B2C here).
- bregma 5y ago> The larger point is why rhe software industry has avoided regulatory capture I would argue that the software industry is not run by software developers but by the cowboys in suits at the Excel and Powerpoint rodeo in the boardroom. It's rife with regulatory capture, but software developers in that environment are considered a liability to be minimized. Tweaking that expense line in your presentation to the shareholders means hiring the cheapest labour possible and spending as little as possible on their development, training, and certification. Your investment in lobbying authorities to keep regulation at bay has an enticing rate of return.
- platz 5y agoI'm tring to highlight and draw comparisons _between_ industries in order to discover what is _different_ between them. I don't think the claim that software devs are oppressed by management (as if other industries do not have management) and would run things better themselves (they wouldn't) sheds any light on discovering those differences.
- julianlam 5y agoI feel like a toilet analogy does not work, as anybody can install a toilet
- bregma 5y agoI feel like the featured article discusses this pretty directly.