> Boxes are not worth $200 each.  

An NZ dollar is worth about $0.61 US, and costs are slightly higher in NZ, as higher quality is demanded.  But the losses may be based upon retail list price replacement cost, rather than actual (depreciated) values, and the actual cost to replace via a single bulk order, as insurance adjusters are often adversarial.  Apparently, even autoclaves are not considered to be effective to sanitize woodenware.  That's just ignorance.

But the underlying lesson here is about the corrosive effect of any "bureaucrat" or "regulator" on the industry regulated.  

No bureaucrat will ever willingly loosen the "regulations" nor make enforcement less draconian.  Over time, to justify the existence of their department, they will steadily expand their reach and make rules more strict, under the banner of "protecting the public", but with the actual goal of building a larger department with a larger budget, as this is how bureaucrats prove their value, and how they get promoted to better positions.

Sadly, there is little that can be done to subject a regulation to any test of reasonableness, leading to the wholesale attempts at "deregulation" by reactionaries, and this "cure" is often far worse than the disease.  The problem is so universal and pervasive, I found it in the best interest of my lab to promote everyone who was an hourly employee (represented by the CWA or IBEW unions) to management job titles, even custodial and clerical staff.  This both simplified things incredibly, and made me very popular with the former union members.  I was able to trash-can about 8 feet of floor-to-ceiling 3-ring binders full of "union work rules" that no one really understood.

When working to "legalize" beekeeping in NYC, I ran in to the same nonsense.  Rather than just removing bees from the list of "dangerous animals" that could not be kept outside of a zoo, the Health Department wanted to create a regulatory scheme to CONTROL beekeeping, as they could not trust the beekeepers to be responsible citizens.  Given the population density, one could see their point, but the overreach was incredible in their first pass proposal.  Lucky for me, the top guy over "mosquito control" had majored in entomology, so he was able to confirm my basic points, and I was able to suggest that bees should be regulated by the mosquito dept, as both were insects, we would have to work closely to avoid killing bees in the attempt to control mosquitos and West Nile Virus.  The result was a bee regulation that had one tangible requirement - "provide water", as bees and humans come into conflict over a water source most often.  It also put the "power" in the hands of someone who immediately joined a beekeeping club near his home out on Long Island, so win-win.

The long term solution to such problems is one of two options - (a) to partner with the regulator, and advocate for the regulator's success within his rigidly straitlaced little world;  or (b) change your activities to completely eliminate his ability to regulate you by, for example, simply not having any hourly workers at all.  When everyone is "management", even the former union shop steward likes the promotion and raise.


  

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