Pierre C Belarge said:
... lets drop all codes and the building industry will always be a big booming industry with lots of money ...
Pierre -
Where I live that's effectively the way it is for single family and two family dwellings. There is no state or local inspection. If one has to borrow money, then it's between the bank and you as to the level of inspection and even who does it.
State Law says following the NEC is required and also the IBC (maybe the UBC), but there is no enforcement.
In my case I needed some money from the bank, and they required I hire an engineer to do a plans review and a foundation inspection. Other than that, no one has looked at it but me.
Generally the houses get built in two flavors - junk and well built. It's pretty easy to tell the difference. It's on a prospective buyer to arrange for inspections and even the quality of the inspectors. Big Brother is not going to take care of you.
A couple of the larger cities have local inspection departments and code enforcement. I can't tell the houses are built any better.
Interestingly, the percent of burned-down houses here is not much different from the code enforcement cities.
I realize you were being facetious, but it does work pretty good for some types of building.
For public access facilities the state does require code compliance and has enforcement.
carl