The rise of a service-based economy implies a natural rise in occupational licensing
I’m in favor of reducing the number of gratuitous licensing laws; I’m also a fan of motherhood and apple pie. But at the same time I think they are, in a sense, a form of worker protection which is acceptable to Republicans — think of them as unions for people who hate unions. And that’s not entirely a bad thing.
(cross-posted at Reuters.com)
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Not sure about florists, but I'm all for licensing barbers and hair stylists. One very important function of licensing is holding the practitioners accountable for basic standards of the profession. You can get your mother-in-law's nephew to cut your hair, but when you go into a barber shop in California, you know that the barber has a basic understanding of cleanliness and competency, not only will you most likely get a passable haircut, but you won't get headlice either, or a bad slice near the jugular. If you do, you have recourse: the State of California can revoke the license so the barber can't work. Sure, s/he can still cut your hair under the table. But the licensed barber running a business in public is going to be far more likely to do the job right and safely, if s/he wants to keep the license.
Even more important is licensing of the various levels of the nursing profession, or law, or medical. You want your licensed CPA to have more than a basic understanding of tax law, you want to have some kind of accountability for private investigators. It's not just the competency, it's the threat of losing one's ability to work in one's profession, and on the consumer side, a license assures the consumer of a basic level of competence. Are there exceptions? Sure. Are boards of regulators sometimes lax? Sure. But the impetus for a professional to retain his ability to continue working by virtue of adhering to basic standards of one's profession is strong. And that's really a more important factor than exclusion of the riffraff.
I think MY is, once again, full of BS.
#1 Posted by James, CJR on Tue 8 Feb 2011 at 06:14 PM
Yep. Licensing is a cartelizing device. Good write-up.
#2 Posted by Dan A., CJR on Tue 8 Feb 2011 at 07:30 PM