Why we Have the FCC and Other Alphabet Agencies

There would not be a need for the FCC if businesses behaved themselves?

By Nick Markowitz Jr

Believe it or not we would not need an Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and many other government agencies if people and businesses would learn to behave themselves. But since we can not, we allow government to get out of hand and grow bigger everyday.

So how did the FCC come into being? It was because in the early days of AM Radio Stations individuals would put up their own radio stations where ever they wanted on the radio band and they'd run them at whatever power they felt like. In particular with the night time atmosphere issues, which allow the signal to travel many miles, cites on the west coast were unable to listen to their local stations because east coast stations would not reduce their power and vise versa.

There was even a daytime problem where two stations on same band were over powering each other. So instead of the people who owned the stations sitting down and working out a way everyone could be happy  instead they kept fighting and arguing because of the almighty buck and no one wanted to give an inch because of greed. This is what allowed the FCC to be established--and now no one has been happy since.

It is the same old story you see it all the time. Someone opens up a business and starts making great money then others get into the same business until the market saturates and then no one makes money. Be it Laundromats, mini storage facilities etc.

And of course since the first ones in want to be the only ones doing what they do so they can charge whatever they want, they try every dirty trick they can use to stop the others from fairly competing. And then the government and the courts are the only ones you can call on to keep big business in line. There is no one else to call.

Time and time again business has proven it can not behave it self and another regulatory agency comes about. OSHA, EPA, MSHA, USDA, FDA, NIOSH, CPSC, NIST have all come about because big business can not behave it self.

A small handful of individuals are responsible for all the rules and regulations we now follow. It is  not getting any better as corporations continue to turn out products no one wants and corporations keep doing what they well please. This same problem is now playing out over in India with an electric car manufacturer who will not recall their vehicles for repairs even though a number of them have experienced ignition problems which have caught the cars on fire.

And the same thing has happened here in the USA with the big 3 until CPSC with court order stepped in and forced a recall. A responsible company would have realized they had a problem and recalled the cars and fixed the problems and come out of it smelling like a rose. Instead they sat there and denied it and smugly ignored everyone until the courts ordered it. Then they sit there and wonder why their stock price has bottomed out.

Until Big Business gets its act together and starts acting responsibly just get use to more and more regulations and bigger and bigger government. It is what we deserve when we can not behave ourselves. When we do not complain, when we do not hold individuals accountable for their actions.

When we reward bad behavior we leave the door open for over regulation and bigger government and eventually a Nanny State because we can do nothing for ourselves and this leads to Socialism and then Communism, which is exactly what we have allowed to happen.

We now have a government that tells us what to do, when to do it, and where to do it. Because we could not take a stand as citizens and do the right things.
Think I am wrong? Then name me 10 things you can do which there is not some type of government regulation.

Counterfeit Dangers

The Fire just waiting to start in your home Counterfeit and Knock off Electrical Items By Nick Markowitz Jr. Fire Investigator You find yourself on a nice sunny spring day deciding to go for a walk what better way to enjoy it than a stop at a local Flea Market. All the great smells from food vendor's carts and the busy activity everywhere make this a special time. Unfortunately you do not realize that the choices you make this day may well result in the destruction of your home and possibly your family. You see a vendor selling all kinds of new, cheap dollar stuff from many different boxes he has laying on plastic sheeting on the ground. You find he has some plug strips you have been needing for your computer system and kitchen, very cheaply priced at $3.00 each. Anywhere else they would cost you $12.99. And so you buy a couple of them, totally unaware that what you think is a good deal on a legitimate item is actually a dangerously-built counterfeit or look alike, also known as a Knock Off. You go home, plug one of these power strips in your computer system and start working with your new laser printer. You get everything set up and ready to go. It's getting late and it's nearing your bedtime. You leave your computer and printer on because it also works as a fax machine. You go to bed to later awaken to the sound of your smoke detector. Your house is filling up with smoke and you instinctively get everyone up and out, just in time as flames come out of the family room where the computer is located. Luckily tonight everyone is safe and firefighters arrive in time to stop the fire in the family room, but there's water and smoke damage everywhere. The Fire Marshal arrives after the fire is out and he begins his investigation. He traces the fire's origin to just about where the plug strip was, but it's almost totally destroyed. Luckily, you have the duplicate strip from the kitchen to give him. On closer examination, he finds that it's not what it appears, it's counterfeit, a knockoff, made to look like a good product. Instead, it is made very cheaply. For example, instead of a #14 gauge wire cord, it's only #16. This means that it can only carry half of the 15-Amps that the packaging says it can carry. To make matters worse, the on/off switch is also inferior because it's undersized. The unit also has no UL, FM, or any other testing agency's approval and no manufacturer's name is on it, other than "made in China." This plug strip never should have been imported and sold in this country because it is absolutely illegal under Federal Import rules. Yet everyday illegal and dangerous items made cheaply and dangerously make it into this country. They are being sold at flea markets; dollar stores; and 2nd-hand, variety-type stores. This is a serious problem. Just a survey of local flea markets here in the Pittsburgh area revealed 10 out of 12 vendors had illegal items for sale. All of them having been imported illegally through an importer in New York City. But when it comes to electrical items, it not just the small stuff being made, its large frame breakers and switch gear as well. Cutler Hammer, a division of Eaton Corp., has started a campaign to make electricians aware of knockoffs. Can you imagine that the apartment or office building you may be in has illegal, copycat electrical switch gear items in it? But it happens. It even happens in the airline and automotive industries and it has caused numerous accidents and deaths. In a word, it is a growing problem. Sometimes manufacturers will also illegally copy the UL  testing label just to make an item look legit, but it's not. The Consumer Products Safety Commission, also known as CPSC, is in charge of protecting consumers from dangerous products and they have field agents in every state. But with the rapid proliferation of illegal items coming into this country, agents are often overwhelmed and in need input from average citizens when it comes to reporting dangerous items. When these agents come across them, which is almost weekly, the CPSC issues bulletins about all kinds of dangerous items being recalled--from children toys with lead paint issues to exploding candles, to lawnmowers with blades that break. A recent effort by the CPSC is a down-loadable booklet which is being issued to every  2nd-hand and variety-type store in order to help them identify dangerous products that they may otherwise sell to an unsuspecting public. This helps in the removal and destruction of of illegal goods that should not be on the U.S. market. Merchants and vendors who continue to sell these dangerous items face fines well in excess of $10,000.00. In additional these illegal items can be seized and destroyed. The only way to stop this scourge going across America is for consumers to become educated so they can avoid these problems in the first place. As a general rule, if it sounds too good to be true, it usually is. For more information on how to identify and report a dangerous product, go to www.cpsc.gov.

Temporary Wiring Dangers

This temporary wiring setup by registered electricians could have gotten someone killed!

By Nick Markowitz Jr.
Fire Investigator

I was listening on my scanner the other day when I heard the local Fire Marshal (FM) call dispatch and request a Police Officer on scene to deal with a worker who refused to identify himself. The FM was checking out a citizen complaint over how a large tent was set up in a shopping center.

After requesting PD response, the worker all of a sudden found his wallet and identified himself as working for an electrical contractor. The FM canceled the Police response right away. Just another interesting day in the life of a Fire Marshal, or so it seemed.

The next day I received a call from the FM who said he had some electrical questions, plus a story to go with it. It seems that one of the local merchants was getting ready for a 3-day tent sale and got permission and permits to put up the tent in the shopping center's large parking lot. They had hired a registered electrical contractor (EC) to provide 120 volt outlets and data lines for cash registers out to the tent. The tent was a properly erected, fire resistant tent, however the electricians who came on site decided to run the temporary wiring out through the store lobby by clipping it to the wall and then drilling a hole in an outside Fire emergency exit door. They then ran the wire across the sidewalk and roadway by means of a small conduit pipe with a wooden 2x4 on each side to protect it from cars that would run over it.

Needless to say the FM got on site, saw the way the wire was run and had them remove it immediately. So then the next day they ran the wire from the roof along with the low voltage wires over top a temporary pole which was not fastened properly as the low and high voltage wires were tied to each other, which is not right.

The FM asked the electrician about it. They told him that this is the way they always do it. So needless to say he called me and a couple other electrical experts on what should be done to make things safe. Each of us visited the site and gave our suggestions. An electrical inspector is due the morning of the sale to make sure things are right. If not, the sale will be canceled or they will run it with no power.

This brings up the issue, these are registered, insured electricians doing work they knew was improper. They did it any way they wanted without regard to safety and code simply because they were not in the City of Pittsburgh. They figured they could get away with it because it's out in the suburbs.

So once again we prove even though laws, licensing and registration, and everything else under the sun is in place, a contractor can, and often does ignore the law, except this time around the EC did not get away with it. In reaponse, this particular EC does nothing more than squeal like a stuck pig saying he is losing all kinds of money.

My response to his response is this: "You would not be losing money if you were properly designing and installing your jobs correctly, according to the principle of doing it right the first time."

Because this contractor thought he had a bunch of suckers on the line, he tried to pull the wool over everyone's eyes. He slopped the wiring and has been caught in the act. Needless to say, any time in the future his company's name comes up in this community, they'll be taking extra time to look at his work because he has proven that he cannot be trusted.

Now, I'm sure the other excuse he will try to use to the FM is "everyone else is doing it this way so he could not put the system in properly because the store in question would not pay the price for a properly installed job."

In this case, I would have declined to do the work, even to give a bid. I would have then called the code-enforcement office to advise them to keep an eye on things, which is what appears to have happened. The store manager did everything right and followed what she was told to do. In the final analysis, it's the electrician's fault for what happened, not the store's fault.

What have we really learned about fire prevention?

"Heads must roll for this travesty unbelievable it was allowed to happen. " Fire prevention in the year 2010 Have we really learned anything? The above statement was not made in 2010. In fact it wasn't even made this century. The year was 1903 and people were infuriated over the 602 deaths of men, women, and children in a fire that occurred at the Iroquois Theater in Chicago Illinois. With 602 dead there was not one red penny given in compensation. Numerous fire and building officials were on the take and fire-proof features that were boasted about when the theater was built were never really implemented or completed allowing for the huge death toll. Worse yet, not a single official spent one minute of time in jail for the incident. This Could Just as Easily Happen Today It was only a decade ago when 101 people died in the tragic Station Night Club Fire in Rhode Island. Since 2000, this same type of fire has killed hundreds more in clubs around the world where pyrotechnic displays started fires. So have we really learned anything? Apparently not. We continue to construct homes and buildings using such light weight material that sprinklers are required. Fine and dandy, but that's assuming the system is properly working and maintained. As we have found out, this is not always the case. In fact, a sprinkler system was responsible for taking a woman's life after it caused an explosion due to improper installation. We have not learned in Pennsylvania either. When PA's new UCC building code went into effect in 2003, it opened the door to legal consumer-grade fireworks to be sold everywhere and they are being sold everywhere, around memorial day and July 4th especially. The number of accidental fires and injuries from fireworks has quadrupled since that time. Is there any doubt that sometimes we're our own worst enemy here in PA? Fires During Severe Winter Weather With the terrible winter we just experienced, as many as 25 individual structure fires took place everyday in western PA, from December 1st through late February. Many of them were due to improper use of space heaters and overloaded and faulty wiring, not counting how many people died from CO poisoning. How about New York City? Look at all the fire and building officials found on the take in 2009 who were responsible for allowing cranes to collapse. Again, have we gotten anywhere? Have we really learned anything? The answer to that is no, and the very words which were shouted in anger in 1903 will be heard again sometime this decade. Why call it human nature because as long as there is someone willing to put someone else at risk, and as long as people refuse to educate themselves, the cycle will never be broken.