A few days ago, a Pennsylvania law mandated that all new one and two unit buildings had to have sprinkler systems. In truth, there are very few house fires. In my town of a few hundred, and my township of several thousand, I don’t think there;s been a house fire for over a decade. No matter. “Safety is our most important concern!”, say the legislators who passed the sprinkler law.
Who benefits? Well, insurance companies are said to want the law to reduce pay outs from fire loss. But, since housing construction has dropped to almost nothing, it’s doubtful that anyone will be saved from a fire by this law. The real profiteers are the people who sell the tanks, pipes, sprinkler heads, and all the supporting gizmos necessary to install the system.
Engineers like it, as well. They’ll be hired to design, approve, and supervise the installation of the sprinkler systems.
The manufacturers of the sprinklers can easily afford to make sizable campaign contributions to legislators who support their legislation. The average increase to the cost of each house will be $12,000. If there are ten thousand houses being built, Pennsylvania homeowners will have to shell out $120,000,000.00 dollars.
At the same time, the amount they will mortgage will be another $12,000.00, costing them another $12,000.00 in interest over the life of their mortgage loan. When the $120,000,000.00 in interest is added to the $120,000,000.00 in actual costs, we can see that in just one state, a useless $240,000,000,000.00 is being taken from homeowners and given to special interests. At 10-20% profit margins, 24-50 million in profits are generated. Every year!
That doesn’t include the ancillary costs. These are complicated systems that will need frequent inspections. It’s likely that yearly inspections will be required. They will have to be done by “trained engineers”. The inspections, which will have to cost at least $250.00/house, will cost hapless homeowners another two and a half million. Every year, that figure will go up, as more houses are built. Community and other colleges and universities will happily offer courses in certifying inspectors.
Sometimes, the sprinkler systems will fail. People will go on vacation, and come back to find their houses and property destroyed. Lots of water damage will amount into millions more in unnecessary costs. Insurance companies will be able to write policies covering such losses. Those policies, we may rest assured, will be very profitable.
Each of the Pennsylvania Legislators who voted for this colossal boondoggle may have gotten a few thousand dollars in campaign “contributions” for their vote to mandate sprinklers. There may have been total cost of a few hundred thousand dollars spread into most pockets. The handful of “leaders” in “leadership” positions may be assumed to have received hundreds of thousands in campaign “contributions”, which is why so many elected officials want to be “leaders”. Whatever the cost, it’s peanuts to those who gave the “contributions”. They will make 24-50 million in profits, not just in one year, but for every single year that the boondoggle is allowed to continue.
The legislators? Most will be re-elected. Many will run on a platform that includes their proven commitment to “public safety” and “concern for citizens.”. To show how valid that is, they will say, “My commitment to public safety is proven by my support of mandating sprinkler installation in newly built homes.”
They know that few voters are able to see through that many lies.
