In some countries (Australia for one) it is illegal to do electrical work on your house if you're not a licenced electrician. I don't agree with that, but it is a position some people take clearly.
Canada does this too. I've had an 'inspector' tell me that I could not ground my windmill tower, had to bring the ground in through a wire into the house and tie it to the ground in the electrical panel because I was allowed only on ground point in my installation.
Totally nuts. I get why they want only one ground from a safety perspective but to bring a potential source of a lightning strike into your electrical panel when it can be safely deflected outside the house is insanity to a degree that I'm not convinced it shouldn't be criminal.
Anyway, I refused, they kept on harassing me and eventually (after a year or so) left me alone. I told the guy I'd do it if he would inform my insurance company of the change he requested in black and white, but that of course he would not do. I suspect he became an electrical inspector by following some course, not because he actually understood the first thing about physics.
That's very strange. Could you not just sink a copper pole into the ground the requisite distance? Do inspectors not have a method for inspecting the actual "ground" that grounds are connected to? Many questions...
That is not for safety, that is for making money. Think about. Make an activity illegal and now only your "certified" and lobbied for employees can do that (now expensive) work.
That's interesting. The viral Australian "Dumb Ways to Die" video [1] from a couple of years back by Metro Trains Melbourne included a snippet about "doing your own electrical work" which seemed rather incongruous to me as a fairly typical American with a house who doesn't think twice about swapping light switches and such. (Especially given the popular image of self-reliant Australians and all that--however atypical sheep and cattle stations may be of the average resident.) I guess that's the reason.
The counterpoint to the "self-reliant Australian" image is the fact that historically the Australian government has been very protectionist about local markets and trades. There are strong trade unions that have lobbied to keep non-trade-qualified people from doing basic maintenance - hell, it's technically illegal to do your own plumbing: http://www.licensedtrades.com.au/licensed/plumbers
(Edit: As in, it's not just illegal to plumb your entire house. It's illegal to replace a tap.)
I imagine that even in Australia high voltage lines are exposed to laypeople via electrical sockets, with naught to protect the novice but being inset in some plastic.
In any case the idea of finding (or even sympathizing with) reasons to prevent owners from accessing their cars' inner functionality rubs me exactly the wrong way.
