"Regulations are written in blood" is, while a valid point, also something of a brain-worm. Plenty of countries have just as good safety track records without

"Regulations are written in blood" is, while a valid point, also something of a brain-worm. Plenty of countries have just as good safety track records without the difficulty many US municipalities present while you are trying to start a business. I think the problem with US regulations is (as far as I have encountered them) that they are descriptive of intended end-results, and not prescriptive of compliant implementation. This creates a lot of bureaucratic inefficiency at the implementation/inspection side as well as lots of ambiguity on end-results. The trade here is some measure of future-proofing and greater freedom on implementation. Unfortunately, this ironically has created the strange mess we face today. Two reasons: 1. Enforcement is retroactive. You build it, and then it's inspected to code. If you fail code, you are work-stopped, penalized, and then ordered to rebuild to code. This forces an inordinate amount of caution and makes everyone involved risk-adverse to comical degrees. And creates, again, ambiguity. 2. Enforcement can happen after business commencement. That is, you start selling doughnuts, and THEN the Department of Water's sewage inspector shows up and finds that your plumbing isn't to some inane, inconsequential section of the code. Why did they show up so late? Well, as it turns out passing this part of the regulations isn't necessary to starting operations. Why didn't anyone stop you from City Hall? Because ... honestly they might know or care. Ambiguous implementations with punitive consequences after the fact. There are countries who do this the other way around. Incredibly prescriptive regulations that in-turn, can be easily checked and verified. Etc. Etc. Does this stifle some amount of innovation? Yes. Is there forms of madness for this style? Absolutely. But from my point of view, the velocity and ease of business growth seems to favor one over the other. And it is NOT the USA's model.