Regulations, at least well intentioned regulations, exist to reduce risk to society. However, risk tolerance is rather subjective. It would be nice to allow p

Regulations, at least well intentioned regulations, exist to reduce risk to society. However, risk tolerance is rather subjective. It would be nice to allow people to pay more for less risk and have things cheaper if they are comfortable with more risk. Forcing everyone to the same lowest common denominator forces people who can tolerate the extra risk to pay for more than they need. Let people have more of a choice. Maybe it can be rated to a certain level of safety with regards to different aspects (wind, fire, flood, accessibility, etc). When I was poor, I built my own place in a friend's warehouse for $3,600 (mostly lumber and drywall from Home Depot) and about 2 months of my own labor with 1 other person helping. It was a small 2 story structure with 4 rooms. It had electrical, Internet, and plumbing. It obviously wasn't to code but it was completely functional and comfortable to live in. I read up on the different codes and why they existed and chose to follow the ones that make sense from a structural engineering / human safety standpoint, while ignoring other ones that I thought wouldn't have any significant impact on me (handicap accessibility, etc). I also wasn't concerned with how it looked. Exposed drywall. Used melamine sheets as giant whiteboards for the interior walls because they were more functional to me than traditional walls. If I had to live according to the regulations, permits, etc, I would have been homeless. But since I was willing to skirt the law and tolerate more risk I was able to get by for dramatically cheaper. I also had to spend time learning how to do framing and construction but that's not really a big deal if you know how to read and can use the Internet. Then there are those regulations that only exist to satisfy the wants of some politician or their cronies. But that's a completely different issue.