August 5th 13, 11:03 PM
posted to rec.radio.shortwave
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First recorded activity by RadioBanter: Mar 2012
Posts: 3,217
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It's all over for Monitoring Times
On Monday, August 5, 2013 4:30:32 PM UTC-5, D. Peter Maus wrote:
On 8/5/13 11:45 , Hils wrote:
On 2013-08-05 16:15, D. Peter Maus wrote:
On 8/5/13 24:37 , wrote:
This is probably the biggest problem in most advanced countries today-
young people cannot do /make anything . Very disturbing, to say the
least...
Industry has wanted this for generations. The individual buys what
she/he cannot build. Prices can rise, warranties can be revised. And the
whole tenor of Customer Service can be dumbed down to "Policies" and
procedures read from a computer screen.
Heath, Dyna, and their like and kind in kit form are gone. Even
Hafler were products built with parts and circuit designs from David
Hafrler's Dyna days, and many of the manuals were reprints of Dynaco
manusals with a new logo and front page.
Convenience, higher wages, and lower costs of production have made
kits, and a lot of DIY obsolete.
Even DIY at the Home Depot is backed up by a league of installers who
can drop a new cartridge for a water faucet in place for you. Codes,
government permit policies, and oversight in your own home have made
much of DIY repair impractical. In some developments, DIY is not
permitted by CC&R's. Even painting your own home must be done by
approved conractors. Often at elevated prices.
And state law has facilitated much of this. Here in the Land of
Lincoln, any new construction project, condominium, housing development,
and subdivision MUST, by law, have a homeowner's association in place
before construction may begin. And CC&R's must be approved by an
oversight committee answering to the State.
So, we become serf's to the contracting and construction trades. We
become serfs to plumbers, electricians. Painters. And even lawn
maintenance contractors.
A few years ago the government here proposed banning all home electrical
work: if you wanted to so much as rewire a mains plug, you'd have to
hire a "qualified" electrician. There was enough of an outcry to
persuade the government to drop the proposal, and many of the media
tried to blame it all on the European Union, but the idea could only
have come from trade associations lobbying politicians.
I wonder how many politicians know how to rewire a mains plug? I wonder
how many have any experience of real industry, either in management or
on the factory floor? ISTM most of them come straight from economics and
politics degrees or banking.
And doing things for ourselves....well that becomes a case of
atrophy. A thing no exercised wastes away.
The last thing politicians and their corporate paymasters want is
self-reliant citizens.
The last thing I would have ever believed in the US, is a political
motive for something like this assinine proposal. But, the more I run
into this kind of crap, and the more I become convinced that what's
behind this, is a political motive.
And very much in line with your observation.
In the end, it doesn't much matter what we speculate is behind it. In
the end, it's the resultant inability for the citizen to rely on his/her
self that benefits the power structure.
If trade unions drive the point, and the bill passes, the power
structure still benefits.
Opportunism is as much an evil as direct pursuit of an abuse. ''Theater'', T'IS.
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