But as I said elsewhere, it only functions if people believe in it ideologically. If a store relied solely on punishment for shoplifting as deterrent, they would need to hire many more security guards to watch every single customer. What they actually rely on is the average person's belief that stealing is "wrong", because said average person does not want to be stolen from themselves.
> Your driving analogy fails because almost nobody builds their own house
It's not only the initial building of a house, it's about any maintenance, repair, or upgrades. Knowing how to keep up your dwelling is a basic life skill. You may find it economically beneficial to pay someone else to do the actual work, but that doesn't alleviate your ultimate responsibility for managing it.
If you want an illustration of how many people DIY versus pay a tradesperson, take a look at the popularity and selection of consumer-facing stores like Home Depot versus professional-only "counter service". Granted, most of these people would be happier reading a distilled "code complete" book rather than the dense NEC. And many more of them will proceed to, for example, swap a lamp on their own without reading anything at all! But they should still be given that choice openly and have access to the actual law nonetheless.
But as I said elsewhere, it only functions if people believe in it ideologically. If a store relied solely on punishment for shoplifting as deterrent, they would need to hire many more security guards to watch every single customer. What they actually rely on is the average person's belief that stealing is "wrong", because said average person does not want to be stolen from themselves.
> Your driving analogy fails because almost nobody builds their own house
It's not only the initial building of a house, it's about any maintenance, repair, or upgrades. Knowing how to keep up your dwelling is a basic life skill. You may find it economically beneficial to pay someone else to do the actual work, but that doesn't alleviate your ultimate responsibility for managing it.
If you want an illustration of how many people DIY versus pay a tradesperson, take a look at the popularity and selection of consumer-facing stores like Home Depot versus professional-only "counter service". Granted, most of these people would be happier reading a distilled "code complete" book rather than the dense NEC. And many more of them will proceed to, for example, swap a lamp on their own without reading anything at all! But they should still be given that choice openly and have access to the actual law nonetheless.