Everyone wants to automate the (proverbial) plumbing, until shit spews everywhere and there’s nobody to blame but yourself.
But anybody can do plumbing. It’s not rocket science.
Regulations come about because of repeated failures that end up harming the public. Regulations aren’t a dirty word, and aren’t obstacles to be “disrupted” in most cases.
> plumbing unions have a financial interest in limiting the number of plumbers
Golly gee, it’s almost as if - because we live in a society where everyone must work in order to survive - that skilled professionals have a vested interest in ensuring only qualified candidates may join their ranks, to make it harder to depress wages below subsistence levels (the default behavior of unregulated capital).
> But anybody can do plumbing. It’s not rocket science.
Oh wow, I had no idea I was qualified to design sewage infrastructure for my township just because I plumbed my Amazon bidet into the cold water line! Sure glad there’s no regulations stopping me from becoming a licensed plumber since apparently that’s all it takes to succeed!
Sarcasm aside, your argument holds about as much substance as artificial sweetener: it sounds informed and wise, but anyone with substantial experience in reality and collaborating with other people knows that all you’re spewing is ignorance of the larger systems at work and their interplay.
Sometimes, but see also the concepts of “iron triangles” and “regulatory capture”.
Plumbing requires skill, particularly for difficult jobs, and also requires advanced equipment to do such a job in a reasonable amount of time, such as special cameras to inspect a septic tank or drain line without having to actually cut into it.
Regulations aren’t a binary (exclusively good or exclusively bad), yet so many of the HN cohort have drank the “exclusively bad and everyone can be trusted to make good decisions forever” koolaid that seeks to dismantle regulations wholesale.
Sometimes regulations come about to protect the public. Often, they’re enacted to protect the profits of insurance companies, banks, and other influential industries. Don’t be naive about “the systems at work and their interplay”.
The question was why plumbers are expensive. I assert that it’s not because plumbing is especially difficult.
Smartest thing you’ve said all day. Thanks for reminding me that trying to convince someone of something when they cannot be bothered to do research beyond first order impacts is a waste of my time.