The usual reason given for occupational licensing is that, "You wouldn't want an untrained person to do 'x', would you?"

The problem with this is that you get kids straight out of college, who pass the licensing test, ... and now absolutely jack shit about doing the job.

Then you have the person who has been doing this his whole life that doesn't have test taking abilities. Further the test often is written with an over-emphasis on the latest buzz-words. So, old hands are even more at a disadvantage.

In other words, having a license can't guarantee the person can drive worth shit.

Then we have things like massage. It used to be 100 hours of practice, then 200, now 1000 hours. And, this is supposed to keep those "happy ending" massage people out the business.

However, those are illegal... and so, they don't go heavily on making sure everyone is licensed.

But, can you imagine giving up 1000 hours of your life, AFTER going to massage school, to just break into the field?

No, this is just govern-cements doing what govern-cements are good at, making sure their buddies don't have any competition.