Further Proof that the American Government is Overrated: Underwriters Laboratories.
Long story made short, back in 1894, there were not many electrical safety standards to be found. So William H. Merrill saw a niche market that could be exploited (go-go-gadget capitalism) founded a not-for-profit organization (slightly less capitalistic, but the inspiration is still there) dedicated to developing standards, testing pieces of equipment and materials against those standards, designing things to meet those standards, and finding hazards that might have otherwise been overlooked.
And he did this without a shred of governmental sponsorship or control.
To be sure, the UL currently works with the American government, as well as overseas governments and equivalent safety organizations here and abroad, but the “UL Listed” stamp now carries with it sufficient weight that an un-listed product would have a very hard time finding a big-box store willing to carry it, due to liability and safety concerns. A “UL Listed” stamp can pretty much make or break the sales of a television, oven, air-conditioner, lawnmower, lightbulb, junction box, transformer, fuse panel, breaker box, controller assembly, solenoid, and countless other electrical and electronic systems, and that stamp is generated by a private corporation, not a governmental agency.
A private entrepreneur saw a void, filled it, and his company has now established itself as nearly the national authority on electrical and fire safety… again, without any governmental oversight or assistance. How many other situations that are currently handled by government agencies could have been better addressed by private ones? In your daily life, you probably encounter hundreds, if not thousands, of items that are UL Listed or Recognized… and you do not even know it. If that is not a measure of success for a safety-minded organization, I do not know what is.
No matter how you slice it, governmental interference is almost never the solution to a shortcoming in society, and, more often than not, that interference will simply complicate and worsen the matter further. As a very wise man once said, the government does not fix the problems, the government is the problem.
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