Re:Ask HN: Should I try to manufacture toasters?
by wegfawefgawefg on Wednesday January 17, 2024 @05:23AM
(#39025880)
You have to make a choice. High homelessness, "communism", or cheap unregulated housing options.
You cant have safety and freedom.
I do think building codes are valid in cities. Outside of cities it should be a free for all, but its not.
However, building codes now are insanely overreaching. I have lived in japan for a few years and found many of the features in buildings here would never be allowed in the US. Minimum stairwell widths, door sizes, building sizes, parking lot requirements, etc. Modern Japanese buildings are probably 100 times safer but would fail american building code.
Point is if the argument is we need regulation for safety it needs to actually be for safety, and minimally.
Racism definitely plays a part in here ("white flight"), but it's by far not the dominant issue.
> Something relevant, a lot of the houses that were allowed to be built in the 40s would be illegal now.
Indeed, but their designs are illegal nowadays for good reasons, mostly related to fire code or structural integrity. Way too many people have literally died in their sleep in unsafe homes. Statista only goes back to 1977 for residential fire deaths, but even that shows a serious reduction of cases over the decades [1].
[1] https://www.statista.com/statistics/376703/us-civilian-fire-...