That's exactly what urban legends are. Anecdotes don't trump authoritative studies.

No. That was point:
2) Sometimes the guy at the top doesn't have the best interests of the country in mind, and nobody can make him.

If you want to call that corruption you can. In my mind it merely includes corruption.

FWIW, I don't think that power corrupts, rather it's lack of consequences. This is closely related, but not the same. But it's also true that power attracts the corruptible (as a gradient). Different people are corruptible in different ways and to different degrees. And one consequence of that is that they are attracted in differing amounts to different kinds of power. The guy who's attracted to being a policeman isn't the same as the guy who's attracted to being a politician, and neither is the same as the guy attracted to being a banker.

P.S.: Yes, that's still an oversimplification. Think of it as a finger pointing at the moon. Look at the moon, not the finger.

There is nothing more pathetic then Sony trying to "win" back customers then bribing them with free games.

Nice rebuttal.

So the voltage drop is so rubbish, the utilities have to overcompensate...

To be clear, the voltage drop is not predominantly from too-small wiring, but from other appliances on the circuit drawing lots of power.

It's all relative. European 230V isn't even quite double the voltage of the US' ~125V, so you still get plenty of voltage drop, yourself. Someone else could come along and say 230V is rubbish, and everyone should have gone with 420V or so, when we both had the chance... Of course the US' lower voltage has the advantage in lesser risk of electrocution, too. The higher 60Hz frequency incidentally gave us better TV...

Even though the common NEMA outlets are 120V, and that's unlikely to ever change, the wall outlets don't need to for big loads... any house built in the past 50 years probably has 240V available at least the electric box, as they get 2 opposing phases of ~130V from the power company. Big appliances like electric stoves, electric water heaters, central air conditioning, and larger split-system heat pumps or large window air conditioning units, ALL are run on 240V here in the US.

Big industrial customers make up 75% of electrical demand, and they're different beasts all together. 277V (single-phase) is pretty common in US industry, particularly for lighting and what not, while big electric motors run on 3-phase 480V or so. Wherever higher voltages are beneficial, they're available.

I forgot to mention that generators typically output over 130V, too. Since they're not going to be located INSIDE your house, they have to similarly compensate for being at the end of a long extension cord out in your back yard.

rough service lights at designed to be handled roughly, and a heavier duty filament that is rated for a higher voltage allows it to be banged around a lot, not because you can hook it up closer to an electrical box

False dichotomy... it's designed for BOTH purposes.

The only time I've see > 125 V is when helping someone who bought a very cheap generator, that could easily have been out of spec for 240 too.

That's your own lack of perspective. I'm an EE, I went through the training and could get an electrician's licenses if I so desired. I do electrical work on my own properties pretty often. At work I'm primarily responsible for monitoring the incoming power for our hundreds of servers at our data centers and our office server rooms, etc., and designing and ordering upgrades as they are needed. I also have friends who are licensed and working electricians with lots of experience. etc.

I just tested the wall outlets in my nice new apartment, a good long distance from an electrical box, and I've got 124.1V everywhere right now. That's not abnormal at all, but completely typical.