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Occupational Licensing Blunts Competition and Boosts Inequality (economist.com)
Occupational licensing -- the practice of regulating who can do what jobs -- has been on the rise for decades. In 1950 one in 20 employed Americans required a licence to work. By 2017 that had risen to more than one in five. From a report: The trend partly reflects an economic shift towards service industries, in which licences are more common. But it has also been driven by a growing number of professions successfully lobbying state governments to make it harder to enter their industries. Most studies find that licensing requirements raise wages in a profession by around 10%, probably by making it harder for competitors to set up shop.
Lobbyists justify licences by claiming consumers need protection from unqualified providers. In many cases this is obviously a charade. Forty-one states license makeup artists, as if wielding concealer requires government oversight. Thirteen license bartending; in nine, those who wish to pull pints must first pass an exam. Such examples are popular among critics of licensing, because the threat from unlicensed staff in low-skilled jobs seems paltry. Yet they are not representative of the broader harm done by licensing, which affects crowds of more highly educated workers like Ms Varnam. Among those with only a high-school education, 13% are licensed. The figure for those with postgraduate degrees is 45%.
[...] One way of telling that many licences are superfluous is the sheer variance in the law across states. About 1,100 occupations are regulated in at least one state, but fewer than 60 are regulated in all 50, according to a report from 2015 by Barack Obama's White House. Yet a handful of high-earning professions are regulated everywhere. In particular, licences are more common in legal and health-care occupations than in any other.
Lobbyists justify licences by claiming consumers need protection from unqualified providers. In many cases this is obviously a charade. Forty-one states license makeup artists, as if wielding concealer requires government oversight. Thirteen license bartending; in nine, those who wish to pull pints must first pass an exam. Such examples are popular among critics of licensing, because the threat from unlicensed staff in low-skilled jobs seems paltry. Yet they are not representative of the broader harm done by licensing, which affects crowds of more highly educated workers like Ms Varnam. Among those with only a high-school education, 13% are licensed. The figure for those with postgraduate degrees is 45%.
[...] One way of telling that many licences are superfluous is the sheer variance in the law across states. About 1,100 occupations are regulated in at least one state, but fewer than 60 are regulated in all 50, according to a report from 2015 by Barack Obama's White House. Yet a handful of high-earning professions are regulated everywhere. In particular, licences are more common in legal and health-care occupations than in any other.
A prospective: Milton Friedman's thoughts on Licensing .
The latter makes perfect sense to license or oversee in some way or another.
Why? The guy at the 7-eleven who rings up your beer purchase isn't licensed. Home brewers aren't licensed. A friend who has you over for a couple beers isn't licensed.
People have been drinking beer and for thousands of years without government meddling. Other than the government collecting a fee and employing a professional meddler, how is it different or better with government meddling?
Another problem with Americans is that they think the problems with their country and government are universal and fundamental, and can't be solved except by the best and brightest (i.e. Americans) despite the overwhelming number of other countries that aren't affected by equivalents of America's (for example) gun culture or business-enthralled healthcare...
A third is that this will likely be modded troll by people who don't understand that pointing out they lack context isn't just an attempt to make them feel small... yeah other cultures have this issue, but gosh y'all...
At some point you are correct. There are certain professions that should require licensing. Generally these are professions that involve some level of personal safety (medical) or fiduciary responsibility (legal.)
At some point your argument falls apart. Not exactly sure why you need to be licensed to:
Decorate a house
Braid hair (NOT cut it)
Walk dogs
Sell caskets
Be a locksmith
Run a pawn broker
Run a flower shop
Operate a food truck (ON TOP of your regular commercial drivers license AND health certificate)
Install home theater equipment
Run a travel agency
Package things for shipping
Upholster furniture
I'm sure you could come up with some corner case that would involve safety in any of these cases, but you could do the same for, pretty much, ANY profession.
So the question becomes is if the licensing scheme is doing more to protect consumers, or to protect established professionals from competition.
My Other Computer Is A Data General Nova III.
How about licensed hair stylists?
They did mention a few specifically: make up artists, hair stylists, cabinet making, to name some of the top of my head.
I'm on the fence on this. Hair styling can be a vector of disease if you don't clean your tools well. Then there's the issue of how difficult getting one really is. There's some math test requirements to get the license in some states... and many people simply fail to pass them, which then ask the question "why do I need this to get a license to cut hair."
But then I know people from other countries that pass the test and go the license because for them it was pretty much elementary school math.
So, in the case of hair styling, is it really licensing that is hurting, or is it people's inability to answer elementary school level questions?
And how do we propose that hair stylists conduct the proper hygienic procedures to run such an establishment? And how do we test them on a regular basis without a license?
Licenses can be a hindrance in some areas. In others, they are a hindrance with a public service purpose.
In other words, surprise, shit ain't always black and white.