As an employee at an established electrical contractor, there are some tools that I use every day and am expected to purchase myself (pliers, multimeter, etc).

Other more specialized (and often expensive) tools that only get used every now and then are usually bought and owned by the company. This is reasonable because if you only use something a couple of times a year, it is more efficient to just have one that gets passed around the various jobsites as needed. It would be unreasonable to expect every last employee to own, say, a tap and die set. They are expensive.

However, I like to own my own shit. I don't like borrowing, and I don't like sharing with others who don't treat tools with the same care and respect that I do. Company tools get trashed over time, it's just the way things go.

Thus, I was not required to buy this, but when society falls apart I'll be the guy who can cut his own threads, and maybe yours too, if you've got value to trade.