The writer missed completely that there is now an entire industry (several industries, actually) built around compliance with the deluge of regulations, amendments, updates, and additions. Larger companies bite the bullet (which is known in California to cause cancer (like virtually everything) and contain lead...) and hire entire squadrons of HSE people to keep up with the regs (as amended this week) and remain in compliance, while small companies do their best (or just say "eff it", and don't bother, taking their chances).
But even more insidious is the fact that the other side of that industry (government) is populated with people whose overweening mission in life is to write more regulations. They seem to actively seek the holy grail of martinets: that which is currently unregulated.
If they find it, their goal will be to write a whole manual or rules, complete with more rules demanding that their regulations be carried out to the letter because, well, that's their job. The regulations don't have to make sense, as a practical matter, and often seem to be based solely on theory and not actual experience with the matter, substances, or operation at hand.
The results can readily be subpar, because...those are the rules, and bugger the expense, they work for government which has an endless supply of minions and money, plucked from the pockets of the general population (well, those who are trying to work, anyway, but one way or another are running afoul of those bloody regulations).
Joseph Heller would howl over the regulatory morass that requires one thing, while on the other hand, forbidding the materials or methodologies to get it done. The regulators really don't care. They get paid either way.
But the bottom line remains the same. More expense, less efficiency, subpar results. Not all things yield the latter, but at some point the law of diminishing returns would apply, but for the fact that those making the rules seldom suffer the results.
I handled the low flow shower head problem with a 3/8" drill bit. I'm a furry fellow, and just getting wet enough to wash with soap was taking too much of my day, and likely using more water to get lathered up and rinse off than the old shower head did. My time is worth more than the cost of water, which is not scarce here, and the less time it takes to wash away the soap residue, the less slippery the shower is, and the less likely I am to suffer a slip and fall injury.
But other products, ones which worked and worked well, have all but disappeared, from degreasers to cleaners, paint that stayed on, lawnmowers that could tackle the Amazon Jungle and could get any neglected back yard cleared, automobiles which were relatively simple, ran well, and could be serviced by their owners, from ordinary maintenance to major repairs with a minimum of special tools and some basic mechanical know-how.
Yes, there are some 'hacks' to get around some of those new gadgets, but with time, everything has become so interlaced that it is difficult to work around one subsystem without affecting all of them.
I drive a small fleet of those "clunkers", now well into their third or fourth decade of service, and wonder just how much, in terms of energy use and emissions the planet has been spared by not replacing them every three to five years, which would require the construction of new ones, and the destruction of the old ones vs the 'environmental expense' of a few extra gallons of fuel and some (often remanufactured) parts.
But then, I herald from a day and age when virtually everything was rebuildable,when every grocery store of any size had a vacuum tube tester and drawers full of spares, so folks could fix their own televisions and radios...when Americans could and did build their own bulldozer in the garage without having to comply with a plethora of regulations.
I'd be happy to vote for a candidate who would decrease the number of regulatory agencies and regulations.
