An email from Europe
It is difficult to sit over here in the USA and watch Europe slide into decay.
I ran into another example of this tonight in an email.
I am building some Computer Numerical Controlled equipment for my metal shop and am on several email lists. The commercial "solutions" for CNC run into the hundreds of thousands of dollars but there is a strong hardware hacker contingent that finds surplus equipment and makes it work for home use. Some people are even running small and successful business with their equipment making and selling parts for whatever catches their fancy.
Unfortunately, this is becoming harder and harder for our friends in Europe -- from the email:
Well, in the EU, they have essentially banned the mom&pop business, desktop manufacturing, etc. The amount of regulation is insane - you practically need ISO9000 registration, and a whole raft of other certifications to install a car stereo. Basically, if you don't employ 1000 people, you can't sell anything as a "product". Machine shops seem to still be permitted, though.
Scrounging is already outlawed, as all manufacturers have to set up these WEEE shops to recycle their old products. They'd have to be idiots to not take advantage of this requirement to not make sure their old products simply disappear. No usuable motors, circuit boards, transformers, etc. for tinkerers to experiment with.
I think most people are familiar with the entreprenurial inventor figure in the history of the US, so anything that actually legislates that sort of thing out is not going to go over well. All you have to say is "Oh, so under this law Thomas Edison and Henry Ford would have been put out of business, huh?" But, we do have to be vigilant, as legislators are so in the pockets of big business that they don't think of this stuff unless you constantly remind them.
The leaders over there are idiots -- where does the disruptive technology come from? People working in their garages and coming up with the better mousetrap.
Sometimes I bemoan the state of innovation in the USA but compared to what the EU will be like in five years, we are a regular Tesla or Edison.
Sad...
Posted by DaveH at April 29, 2006 10:35 PM