On Jun 5, 11:30 am, Mike Berger wrote:

....top posting repaired...

Russ wrote:
I however can't get over the greedy inventor's attempt to legislate his
device into every saw in the US. When his invention wasn't snapped up by
all of the major manufacturers as he assumed it would, he lobbied to
make it illegal to manufacture or import saws without a safety device
(his being the only one that would meet the requirements) installed.

We've all heard this anecdotally. How much direct knowledge do you
really have of the inventor's greed and disdain for humanity?
Even if he lobbied to have the device made mandatory, maybe it
was because of his own blood-draining experience and was completely
altruistic.

Meanwhile, manufacturers of everything we consume lobby AGAINST
consumer safety, encouraging the government to let them use more
dangerous components and make more wasteful products. Do you have
a car or truck? How altruistic do you think the vehicle manufacturers
are?

I have read a summary by a reviewer of what was reported as a summary
of an hour-long telephone interview w/ the inventor/principal of
SawStop which essentially recounts his/their supreme disappointment w/
the failure to achieve a licensing arrangement w/ any of the existing
vendors. Unfortunately, what wasn't revealed was any of the details
behind the position or requirements of the licensing to allow for any
judgement of greed or any other motive other than to know that no
agreement came to fruition. There was, apparently, an agreement w/
one manufacturer that led to a signed a document but something (also
undisclosed) caused that agreement to also fall through. It is open
record of the petition filed subsequently (still unacted upon but not
rejected as I understand it). One can not, of course, unerringly
abscribe motive to action, but certainly it appears at least
superficially as though a business plan was to try to force
accepatance rather than enter into production independently.

As for the red herring of the automakers, it isn't their job to be
altruistic--they're a business who's objective is to provide a product
attractive enough to find a market and to be able to do so at a
profit. That, of course, is SawStop's objective, too.

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