There is only one goddess Gaia and Al Gore is her only prophet...

[ShadowHM]

It's not me actually. I'm in favor of engineering decisions being made (or at least reviewed) by actual engineers. Where I live (surrounded by water), these are decisions that come up all the time. It takes years to actually get anything done around here due to all the regulations.

I am not sympathetic. As I noted, the regulations are there for a reason. There are many who can and do act in (sometimes willful) ignorance of the effects their self-serving actions have on others. Heck, sometimes they do so even when they are not ignorant of those effects. Sometimes they deliberately minimize the probability that those effects will take place. Sometimes they flat-out don't give a damn.

Regardless, I would rather wade through a morass of regulations than allow continued free-rein by the 'many'. I am sorry you don't share that feeling.

Additionally, since we are into personal statements: I would rather pay more taxes, regardless of a certain level of expected 'government waste', than continue on our merry way towards the precipice. I am not sanguine at all about the ability of our species to devise a way out of the mess we have created, but I would rather see something tried other than resting my hopes on 'people of goodwill doing the right thing'. Government regulation is a ponderous and heavy-handed way to get things done, but it is a far sight better than letting people continue doing what serves themselves best.