ANARCHY?
Somehow ISO9000 has been transmorgified into the only alternative to anarchy? Whew!, we live in heady times!
Standards are like vitamins: sure you need some, but too much can cause harm or, if not, be a waste of money. Nobody who is skeptical of ISO is saying that no standards should exist, rather that there is no clear need to implement one as comprehensive as ISO.
Prosperity, the ability to make money in the market place, are due to individual creativity, effort, etc. This is so evenin a corporate environment, though an understanding of this may be lost in today's corporate culture. The prosperity of any company depends more on the quality of people than on laying down regs or codifying procedure. That this approach has failed repeatedly when applied to running governments seems lost to most of ISO's advocates. But I understand that it's due to looking at issues narrowly instead of broadly. As someone who once worked in government and saw this coming down the pike I won't say it will never work. Rather, what you'll see is some initial success here and there -- like those who make the first dollar in a Ponzi scheme -- then as it becomes universal, collapse occurs because of ossification.
