In the US, we have many government agencies, like OSHA, and the NLRB, and others, like the SEC, etc., not to mention the AGs and other law-enforcement people.
Business owners love to hate on them, but they are a big reason that we don't have poorhouses any more.
I have found that there is absolutely no bottom to the depths that people will sink, if they can make money. This seems to be true of folks that graduated from Yale, or from Jail.
The idea that any industry will "self-regulate," is a laughable and naive myth.
I'm confused why you don't think this same reasoning doesn't apply to politicians and bureaucrats who would be doing the regulating.
If you live/work in a building with several floors, and a stairwell, go down the stairwell, until you get to the ground floor.
If the building has a basement, there will be a door to the basement, and it will be facing the stairwell, and will open inward (towards the stairwell). The ground floor (at least), will have a "panic bar," to unlatch it (this is a horizontal bar, at waist level, on average-sized people, that can be pushed, to unlatch the door, and push it open). The door will also open outward (away from the stairwell).
This is because of government regulations. Developers would not choose to do this, if given a choice. It's not cheap. I believe that some older buildings may be "grandfathered in," where they might not have to do it.
The same goes for lighted exit signs.
If they didn't have this, a lot of people would die in fires and emergencies. Before these types of regulations, there were constant stories about dozens of people dying in workplace fires. It still happens, in some places.
