I disagree with the trowaway line "And without statistics we wouldn’t have modern quality control, so maybe we’d still be driving around in AMC Gremlins and the

I disagree with the trowaway line "And without statistics we wouldn’t have modern quality control, so maybe we’d still be driving around in AMC Gremlins and the like. Scary thought, but not a huge deal, I’d think." In a world without statistics and tools for quality control, it would be immensely expensive to produce the most basic of industrial goods. How could I order a nut that would fix a specific bolt without them testing each and every nut and bolt they produce? How expensive would those nuts be if each and every one were measured individually? Or how faulty would a package be if not enough were tested and the factory had no way to guess if their manufacturing process was faulty? How can I even conceive of building a car if I cannot trust (or know how much to trust) each manufactured piece that composes it? Let alone food or medicine? The great value of the industrial revolution was repeatable processes that produced the same quality of material.