Building codes saved lives in Chile earthquake. Are building codes anti-freedom?

[reardenstone]

I will probably get some heat for this, but.....

I am a libertarian, but with a small "l", as you can see. While I think that war on drugs, war on terrorism and monopoly money we use to get things are bullshit, I think that, in some, very few instances, government interference improved the quality of life. Government interference is why, if you get sick at work, they won't just throw you out and replace you with a healthier specimen, why we have airbags in our cars, why our cars GENERALLY are better in just about all respects, why I know exactly what is in the can of food before I open it up and introduce the contents into my organism.

And yes, the codes that make buildings tougher and, therefore, save lives are due to government interference, so I welcome them, too.

And while may be it's not Washington's job to do these things, I do believe that at least a state governing body should exist to regulate these kinds of things.

Flamesuit on.

I agree to some extent. We can agree that it is slippery slope thinking to assume that if we accept "minimal government" we are accepting statism et toto and socialism.

The REASON green and safety are marketable now is because they were made popular by national attention.

Sometimes however, government is guilty of jumping on the bandwagon.


I do not advocate a large bureaucracy, but what is wrong with downsizing slowly and incrementally?

Don't end the Fed; audit it first and then work on ending it.
Don't end the FDA, open it up to some private contracts and then work on making it as small as possible (a small panel that meets with private safety companies.)