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The alternative is government standards. You have power outlets you can interchangeably plug different appliances into. Why? Standards. Let there be a standard
by dzdt 3y ago
The alternative is government standards. You have power outlets you can interchangeably plug different appliances into. Why? Standards. Let there be a standard for color-controllable light sources that ensures interoperability of components, and then there will be competition to hit price-vs-shittiness balances suiting multiple parties.
- akira2501 3y agoThe national electrical code is a private standard. Many local laws directly reference it, but it's not created nor maintained by the government in any way. These standards often come about by simply recognizing the most popular solution and then codifying it. The government is not better at this than the market.
- germinalphrase 3y agoIt’s not the market that is enforcing those codes, and without enforcement - rules are just suggestions.
- akira2501 3y agoOf course it is. Try buying insurance on a house that didn't get a building permit. Try reselling it. And how, exactly, does the government "enforce" the code? Are you put in jail for not following it?
- mr_toad 3y agoI don’t know about the US but in many countries if a building can’t be brought up to code it will be condemned.
- cowsandmilk 3y agoIn the US, it can definitely reach the point where they will tear it down and send you the bill for the demolition. And if you don’t pay that bill, they’ll then auction off your land to get paid.
- germinalphrase 3y agoThe government - that supplies that building permit - does also literally send an inspector to my property to enforce the code, yes.
- pdonis 3y agoAnd the same government makes sure that the code, in addition to including things that are actually necessary for your safety, also includes a lot of other things that aren't, but that are beneficial for the friends and relatives of government officials who run construction companies and don't want to have to innovate. As Robert Heinlein once said, "We have never seen a modern house."
- mlucient 3y agoYou can be, quite easily - see Title 8, 3321b2 (a PA law that lets PA municipalities punish building ordinance violations via criminal process) - most states have some version of this. https://www.legis.state.pa.us/cfdocs/legis/LI/consCheck.cfm?txtType=HTM&ttl=08&div=0&chpt=33&sctn=21&subsctn=0 https://www.legis.state.pa.us/cfdocs/legis/LI/consCheck.cfm?...
- akira2501 3y agoThis isn't always a state level issue. It's often established county by county. There are lots of counties in the US where there is no zoning law. The only state business you need to do there is report any improvements to the appraiser for tax purposes. Some of these districts _do_ have inspectors anyways, and they will issue permits, but the county itself does not require you to do this. As I said though, you will certainly be unable to insure anything you've built without a permit in these places. Aside from that, you can build what you want however you want.
- dclowd9901 3y agoI’ve never had trouble selling a house with unpermitted work (not mine, but previous owners’)
- the_optimist 3y agoBefore concluding that the NHS health record is the only option, you should consider industry standards like USB, which in some cases have worked well. We must have a failure-and-improvement cycle in case the standard is bad and fundamentally doesn’t work. We forgo that cycle when the government takes up the cause, even worse yet when the regulators are captured by some collusive fiend.
- taneq 3y agoUSB is now a pile of incompatible standards in a trench coat, holding hands with a menagerie of incompatible connectors in another trench coat, all wrapped in a third larger trench coat and claiming to be a single universal standard.
- berniedurfee 3y agoYeah, I was going to say the same, just not as creatively. USB is not the poster child for successful industry-led standards.
- JamisonM 3y ago> USB is not the poster child for successful industry-led standards. Every day billions of devices use USB for charging and data transfer and work just fine.. was there some government intervention that jumped in to make that work that I am unfamiliar with? However the sausage was made.. and is still being made... may be imperfect and ugly but USB seems pretty darn successful! Bluetooth too!
- ArnoVW 3y agoNot to be that guy, but there was the intervention of the EU to force phone makers to use USB...
- taneq 3y agoNo, you be that guy. As many gripes as I have with USB, the EU forcing all phone manufacturers to use a common charging standard was huge. This is the kind of thing where government action really can improve on a Nash equilibrium.
- achates 3y agoThat's basically what the Matter specification is.
- pressbuttons 3y agoI was excited for Matter for all it promises... but companies seem to be explicitly holding back support for it because they recognize that it will bring less control for them, less differentiation, and far fewer opportunities to force these money-squeezing ideas onto consumers. I hope to be proven wrong but I'm not feeling very optimistic about its long-term future right now.
- clnq 3y ago> The alternative is government standards The alternative could be investors investing their capital responsibly, in companies with competent C-suites. That would be a nice trend to see. And I have some hope we might. Actual reputable engineers leading engineering companies, doctors leading medical start-ups, career drivers leading car manufacturers, and so on. That is sustainable. I don’t get the infatuation investors have with the business class where even the most incompetent CEO with experience is often preferred to real competence of a specialist. That experience is available (and much cheaper!) through consulting contracts. Investing in enshittification schemes is known in some circles as “shitting where you eat”, pardon the strong idiom. It harms the industry they’re trying to exploit for profit. It’s not only parasitic, but self-destructive.
- jjoonathan 3y agoIs this wishful thinking or did they actually price hike enough to lose money?
- drekipus 3y ago> The alternative could be investors investing their capital responsibly, in companies with competent C-suites That definitely exists and happens all the time
- cowsandmilk 3y ago> career drivers leading car manufacturers ?? Driving around a lot doesn’t mean you know anything about manufacturing cars. You may have good inputs on what the interior design should be, but getting a team to build a million mile engine requires a different skill set.
- clnq 3y agoDon’t be so surprised. McLaren, Shelby, Ferrari, Pagani Automobili, etc were founded and lead by career drivers.
- BizarreByte 3y ago> The alternative could be investors investing their capital responsibly, in companies with competent C-suites That will never happen, the influence of money is always corrupting. There is no free market solution, these are things that have to be enforced by law.
- anon-3988 3y agoYou think government/standard is immune to enshittification?
- afavour 3y agoNo but I do think it’s more resistant than what we currently have? Yes.
- bradgessler 3y agoIt would be regulatory capture. The same companies that are enshitifying these products would send lobbyists to law makers to build a larger moat around their shitty products.
- metabagel 3y agoDoesn’t have to be immune to be better.