Why such "loose" permissions?

[M.W. Chang]

you can set the umask /etc/profile, /etc/config.d/shells/bashrc

I don't quite understand the logic involved.

> Here's the typical perms automatically given to a new file created in my 
> $HOME directory:
> -rw-r--r--    1 michael  michael         2 Dec 11 09:12 testfile.txt
-- 
  .~.    Might, Courage, Vision. In Linux We Trust.
 / v \   http://www.linux-sxs.org
/( _ )\  Linux 2.4.22-xfs
  ^ ^    11:32pm up 2 days, 2:02, 1 user, load average: 2.21, 1.54, 1.33