I know that there’s a long history in the United States of government imposing regulations on housing. I’m going to suggest that getting rid of these laws would not only result in better, more affordable housing but also do something supremely important when it comes to the state of humanity.
Understand that we live in a system that makes us supplicants and treats us like children and, importantly, makes it harder to acquire shelter.
No one wants to say the words that I will: Getting rid of building codes and laws that restrict development entirely is the right answer. Not streamlining. Not reforming, but removing government from the building oversight business altogether.
I say this knowing that no one wants to slaughter the sacred cow that is building inspection and permitting. Policy practitioners — politicians, think tanks, and columnists — dance right up to that line and then retreat.
Take, for example, the comments of my friend Brian Almon, who also gives cover to the arrangement in…
