The fastest way to speed up new construction is to drop all safety protocols whatsoever—that's how you get rapid build up in developing countries, but that's also how you lose thousands of people to an earthquake or to a citywide fire. One of the characteristics of a developed nation is that we place a higher priority on not losing the development we already have than we do on developing further. Stability over growth. The rewards are lower, but so is the risk of a disaster.
There are valid tradeoffs, though. If you have a little more fire safety but as a result a significant increase in housing costs that pushes some people at the margins into homelessness, that might not be worthwhile.
Is the requirement to have two staircases in apartment buildings worth all of the extra lost space? Maybe, but also maybe not.
Ultimately we should be optimizing our policies for human well being, not safety. If we lock everybody in padded rooms, they'll be much safer than if we allow them to go out and do dangerous things like get in cars, but that's obviously a bad tradeoff.
The fastest way to speed up new construction is to drop all safety protocols whatsoever—that's how you get rapid build up in developing countries, but that's also how you lose thousands of people to an earthquake or to a citywide fire. One of the characteristics of a developed nation is that we place a higher priority on not losing the development we already have than we do on developing further. Stability over growth. The rewards are lower, but so is the risk of a disaster.