The system has too many leaks - but YOU can help plug them.
If there's anything resembling a sacred cow to this industry, it's the system of license-permit-inspection that conveys professional stature upon the plumbing trade. Without this system in place, anyone can claim to be a plumber and perform the work of the trade, to the detriment of public health and safety. Unfortunately, there are many leaks in the system. These are the ones that arise time and time again in contractor gripe sessions.
1. Too many jurisdictions. The word “system” should really be plural in recognition of hundreds of building jurisdictions throughout the land that all seem to have their own peculiar ways of doing things. Many adopt a state or county plumbing code, but way too many see fit to reinvent the wheel simply because they have the authority to do so. There are parts of the country where a plumber may need to hold half a dozen licenses just to work in a normal trading area of a few dozen square miles. Accompanying this, of course, is more bureaucracy than is good for anyone's mental health.