The author seems to be tiptoeing around the real issues in the room, a combination of over regulation, need for well protected union jobs, and a refusal to embrace cheap labor. EU may have a bureaucracy but they are plenty happy to abuse cheap eastern European manpower when it comes to building things. Talk to some construction people in the US (many are Uber drivers, ask them), and they all have stories about how supervisors instruct them to take plenty of coffee breaks and do the minimum amount of work possible. In other countries building fast with good quality is perfectly doable. American housing and zoning laws are overly focused on compliance with issues like wheel chairs that significantly drive up costs. Go back to the bread and butter, as long as it pass civil engineering safety standards and emergency regulations, let it be built. Forget everything else, import labor from mexico and el Salvador if necessary. For every lazy unioned worker, there are plenty who want a slice of the American dream. Until computer vision can replace them, more competition in the labor market is the best solution to shoddy and overpriced workmanship.