Bureaucrats Gone Wild…
I haven’t had very many new topics I wanted to talk about here for a while, not that I have no opinions, but I have little to add to the political debate in the U.S.
I was prompted to my thoughts today by reading a news article discussing how the iPod will be redesigned in the E.U. to have a lower default volume. It appears that new rules specify a safe maximum volume, aimed at avoiding hearing loss, and that the new standard requires companies to limit the default volume in order to have the presumption of providing a safe product, in lieu of specific tests.
I don’t have any problem with guidelines, but it is part of a pattern of growth in government regulation using safety and welfare. One bit at a time, the regulations become more detailed and cover ever so smaller risks. Many of these ideas are in themselves good, commonsense solutions, but what ever happened to personal choice?
What, you say, people can choose for themselves? Pete Townshend (of the Who) has admitted to having hearing loss, and it is believed to be associated with his being the guitarist in what was one of the loudest bands of its time.
Well, neither he nor Roger Daltry died before they got old (although their bandmates did), but what kind of generation would they have been without big amplifiers and even bigger speaker cabinets to destroy?
Now, all we have left is bureaucrats gone wild…