Would Government Regulation of Diving Be So Bad?

[Snowbear]

if no, then, since the agencies haven't been able to sort it out themselves, someone else ought to, perhaps?

Do you actually believe the government would make it better??
:rofl:

 

[tg54]

The government should stay out of our lives, other than to protect our freedom and boarders.

If there is a major concern about proper training, why don't the agencies just have another instructor (non afiliated with the primary instructor) verify the education given to and recieved by the student for a nominal fee. and have a double signature on the cert card. Agencies should make sure their instructors do no skimp corners to get the numbers out; maybe limit class size to a reasonable size, 6 to 8 max.


Other than that neither government nor any agency should be responsible for the stupidity of a diver.

 

[H2Andy]

Do you actually believe the government would make it better??
:rofl:

i take it that means that you don't believe the government
will make it better.

fair enough. tons of other people have said the same thing
on this thread.

do you think the agencies are doing a god job training divers?

if not, what would you suggest be done?

 

[Snowbear]

You first

 

[H2Andy]

i would turn to the government only when there is an unnaceptable risk to life (in this case to neophyte divers) due to a failure of an industry to regulate itself.

so the questions for me are:

1. is the loss of life at an unnaceptable level? from this thread, most people apparently feel that the agencies are doing a good enough job. so i would say that we are not at the critical level that would require govt. intervention

2. has the industry failed to regulate itself (thus leading to the unnaceptable risk
level)? no, since we are not at the unnaceptable level of risk yet.

so, it would appear to me that the agencies are doing a good enough job
such that bringing government in at this point would not result in an improvement.

in other words, i feel that government should only step in when the negatives that
come with government regulation are far, far outweighed by the negatives of
allowing self-regulation.

HOWEVER (you knew there'd be a however ), what if
the trend is a negative one, with less and less training, more
and more risk, and more and more fatalities? what if we
are quickly heading for the point were self-regulation would
have failed?

does anyone believe that training is getting better?

i feel most people think it is in fact getting worse.

how much worse can it get before the proverbial brown stuff hits the proverbial fan?

 

[Snowbear]

in other words, i feel that government should only step in when the negatives that
come with government regulation are far, far outweighed by the negatives of
allowing self-regulation.

Who will be the "expert" who determines when that line is crossed? Who will draw the line?

 

[H2Andy]

these things happen organically. once there is enough of a public outcry as the
bodies pile up, gubmen will take it upon itself to step in.

 

[CathyI8205]

Does the government oversee the equipment or instructors?

 

[TCDiver1]

i take it that means that you don't believe the government
will make it better.

fair enough. tons of other people have said the same thing
on this thread.

do you think the agencies are doing a god job training divers?

if not, what would you suggest be done?

I think the agencies provide most of what is needed to put out good divers. It then becomes the personal responsibility of the LDS/Instructor/Student to promote/teach/learn and use what is needed to be a safe diver.

I'm a personal responsibilty super-freak, so government control is out in my book. The last thing i want is a vocal minority controlling my actions in diving based on their own special interests. Not good in my book.

Government licensure is no guarantee of quality. In my learned trade, Engineering, i know more inept registered Engineers (PEs') than quality ones. Engineers pass a test once and basically are registered Engineers the rest of their lives with no serious ongoing education or training required.

I'm sure the Fed could come up with a great similar program for us scuba instructors.

 

[H2Andy]

Does the government oversee the equipment or instructors?

do you mean right now?

there are some minimal safety standards in place (for tanks),
otherwise, gubmen is pretty much out of diving at the
moment