Much like the tooth fairy, the Yeti, or ‘Tom Cruise is Straight’, the concept of government inspections increasing safety is a myth
“The permit for the state-run swimming pool where a woman’s body went unnoticed for more than two days this week had expired six months ago. A city health inspector who examined it Tuesday determined the water was cloudy, but did not see her remains resting on the bottom. . . . It raised sharp questions about whether those responsible for safety at the pool, from staff to city inspectors to state officials, may have neglected their duties.”
Well, they’ve been doing it for decades, no need to get on them now.
It’s sad it takes a dead body to illustrate my point. When a private company screws up an inspection, they are fully liable for it. When we added the addition onto the house, the $150 inspection included the inspector leaning on the fence, seeing we were putting up stuff, taking the check and leaving. If my patio collapses from shoddy workmanship, I don’t get my $150 back, the inspector won’t lose his job, and the state would probably only demand that we pay twice as much for the inspections to prevent this from happening again.
Because some people can’t seem to read, let me type this out real slowly – I am not saying inspections are a bad idea and that we should do away with them. What I’m saying is that government licensing and permits are a scam, lead to less safety, not more, and do so because there is very, very little recourse you can take when things go tits up. Hopefully without a dead body.
My take is that the inspector gave a quick glance over the fence, saw the water was murky, marked ‘cloudy’ on his sheet and went to grab a donut.