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| Up until now, I've told you what I know, offering no proof. So let's stop and check some facts. Here's supporting body-text from a recent Anchorage Daily News article: |
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| Others want to know too. Dave Windsor covers key points in this article. My primary concern is the paragraph below: |
| This covers what I'd usually be doing. A ceiling fan is mechanical and electrical. I looked up the details. Present regulations are really convoluted. They essentially restrict all but union tradesmen from performing most work. It is possible to get a contractor's licence without apprenticeship. But you still need an administrator and an engineer to run yourself. That's not what the handyman dream is about. The whole concept vanishes beneath the weight of required oversight. |
| Your motive is presumed pure when you work on your own home. Supervisory requirements vanish because due diligence is its own motivator. This is probably how Habitat For Humanity gets by. |
| Inept homeowners don't understand precarious balances that surround. They want to loose the supervision and related overhead. But as with any new-home purchase, the home is collateral for a loan. The owner is no more than a figurehead. If it burns down, insurance pays the bank. The owner has nothing to do with that transaction unless tampering is suspected. If a handyperson is standing in the middle when the smoke clears, he or she is "it." Who's liable? The handymam is like the beam-dump for liability. She'll pull her pockets inside out for viewers, so all appears lost. But is this just a prop? Maybe they point at her whenever needed, triggering the automatic write-off response. |
| I don't know what to call the above. It seems like bank fraud. As a speculative guess, catastrophic loss might occur after every hundredth dispatch. Failed shoddy-craftsmanship will most likely be presumed original, although admittedly substandard. Grandfathered-in as an original, insurance will cover such damages. When this happens, law-abiding customers will pick up the tab. Given that we make a killing on each job, the devils advocate watches, over time, to see if measurable value is vanishing in our wake. This would represent a transfer of wealth, through an unseen mechanism, like a multidimensional shell game. Resulting catastrophic losses will likely follow a pattern resembling popcorn noise; no outwardly visible pattern will ever emerge: its undetectable. |
| The sad fact is: no general contractor provides required on-sight administration. Professional engineers do not design ceiling-fan installations. But out inspectors are certifying that they do, so the municipality can be insured. Is everyone, everywhere, living a lie? Do "fudge-factors" make American ways feasible? Is there really any "straight and narrow" left? |