Occupational Licensing Isn't For Your Benefit
In many ways, occupational licensing keeps not only people down who want to try and serve others in their communities, but it also keeps everyone else down in the community by preventing them from gaining access to a wider variety of options in the market.
With increased competition comes better prices and better services and by constructing an environment with occupational licensing, that establishes and protects monopolies in different industries, it does so at the expense of the people.
These rules often create unreasonable boundaries that prevent people from trying to better their lives and from being able to work for themselves at something they might be very skilled at, and passionate about doing.
Occupational licensing reform bills have been increasingly considered around the United States, with different legislators vowing to reform the rules and make way for more freedom.
These rules don't come as a benefit for the people, because it's been shown that occupational licensing leads to higher costs, lower quality services, and fewer options in the market.
Imagine working for years in a certain occupation in one state only to move to another and find out that you cannot continue your business because you need to complete certain occupational requirements. These changes could be very costly and take quite a bit of time, not everyone has the capability to meet the new requirements and so there are many who suffer.
Economists from Princeton and the University of Minnesota have previously estimated that the occupational licensing schemes that exist today could be keeping millions of jobs out of the market. That's billions of dollars in exchanges that's being stifled because of nonsensical and unjust restrictions that keep people from doing business.
With their rules, the state wants to assume the choice for people, before the people have made their decision, that they wouldn't want certain services, and this unjust restriction in an effort to “keep them safe” violates their freedom and lowers their quality of life.
The people might have been told that these rules are there to keep us safe, but it's debatable whether they do contribute to a safer environment. It shouldn't be the duty of the state to try and keep individuals safe from themselves, choosing for them what might be best. No matter how much they might like to be, the state still isn't our parent.
Let the people decide who they want to work on their house, give them a massage, cut their hair etc, rather than relying on the state to decide for the people in choosing who will be permitted to serve the people and who won't. The more that various states can implement occupational licensing reform and truly cut back on the restrictions, the better off the people are going to be.
Between occupational licenses and the IRS, it is almost impossible to do business if you don't already have money. I have hit that wall many times.
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Exactly! Just like closing down some little kids' lemonade stands. Crazy days.
for safety :)
As I wrote early on here, "A license is permission to do something that is otherwise illegal. This is a basic definition found in any legal dictionary. As such, licenses and permits are proof that something remains illegal, not that freedom has been recognized. Legality does not define morality or reason, so any claims to legal authority are open to question and bear the burden of proof in any rational debate."
especially the defying reason part 😄😄
It's to generate revenue for the certifying body and restrict the supply.
gotta get those roads somehow 😄
I remember reading how beauticians were trying to shut down people that did cornrows and weaves because they could pull the hair too tight and cause headaches, so they fought to require those people to get beautician license.
I also met a guy that has been cutting hair since he was around 8 years old in his backyard and when he went and got his license the teacher let him teach the class as he knew more about cutting hair then the teacher did.
Completely agree that licensing is just more and more of a way to eliminate competition especially since online reviews are becoming more and more popular and used.
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Agree 100%. People who have the talent but lack the resources (time and money) cannot compete.
This also lowers the quality of service. The standard for education has dropped significantly over the last century, leaving the market with inexperienced morons who just so happened to have the right piece of paper.
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.
Agreed. Passing an exam is not a substitute for real life experience. Not only does allow the government to control the market but it also puts more money in their pocket as they also have control over application fees, and test preparation centers. Why not just tax us directly lol?