Re: State and local occupational licensing laws

On Wed, 5 Jun 2024 20:31:49 -0000 (UTC), "Adam H. Kerman"
<ahk@chinet.com> wrote:

BTR1701 <atropos@mac.com> wrote:

"Adam H. Kerman" <ahk@chinet.com> wrote:

Adam H. Kerman <ahk@chinet.com> wrote:

BTR1701 <atropos@mac.com> wrote:

Adam H. Kerman <ahk@chinet.com> wrote:

>

. . .

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Mere possession of lockpicks without being a licensed locksmith

>

Do you have to be licensed to be a locksmith, too? Is there no
profession that the government doesn't believe you have to ask its
permission before you can perform your job?

>

You know the gag. A thief or burglar serving a sentence in prison learns
that if he takes courses or trains for a trade or profession, it counts
as "good behavior", reducing prison time. So he takes a locksmithing
course by correspondence...

>

How can that possibly go wrong?

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According to this Web page, 13 states require a trade license under
state law. In other states, trade licenses are issued under local
ordinance.

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https://www.locksmithkeyless.com/blogs/news/a-comprehensive-guide-to-locksmith-licenses

>

Hey! Look what I found!

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https://occupationallicensing.com/occupation/locksmith/

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This Web site discusses the burden of occupational licensing. It's a
study by Institute for Justice!

>

In Texas, they used to force black women who made money providing
hair-braiding services to their friends and neighbors to have a
cosmetology license just to tie hair in little knots. For the "safety"
of the community, of course. It had nothing to do with that fact that
the license is expensive and puts money in the state's coffers. And to
get the cosmetology license, not only does one have to pay the huge fee
to the state, one has to take (and pay for) hundreds of hours of
'training' that has no bearing on twisting hair into braids.

>

You used to have to go to 2000 hours of training and obtain a college
degree just braid someone's hair. There's not even any "potentially
dangerous equipment" like blow-dryers <snort> involved in hair-braiding
and the worst that can happen if you fuck up someone's braids is they
can undo them and have it redone by someone else. Yet the state wanted
to make people spend thousands of dollars to be 'licensed' to do it.
Thankfully that was repealed.

>
Waitaminit: Texas got rid of an occupational license? Cool. My state
still has that license. And it's a separate license from barber!
>

A wannabe librarian needs a master's degree just to get an entry-level
job filing books.

>
I'm self taught on book identification and cataloging. It's something
self-published authors need to get right, and I maintain a Web site to
give guidance. Every time I learn something, I update it. No clue if
anyone reads it.
>

It's a massive scam. It's becoming almost impossible to do *any* job
without someone telling you that you have to pay a tithe-- either to a
college, a trade school, a union, or the state-- to do it. And all of it
to use the power of the state to limit competition and keep prices
artificially high.

The question is who is pushing for this. In most cases it seems to be
people who are already in the field pushing for the licensing to limit
the competition. Then we get governments (local/state) pushing for the
licensing as a way of getting free money. After all it impacts a
limited number of people unlike adding on an additional property tax
or sales tax that impacts a large number of people.

Shhh. I hear there's this Scottish intellectual who wrote a book
criticizing English guilds in restraint of trade and talks about the
"invisible hand" in the free market. I wonder if anyone will read it.

Sounds like it might hold a wealth of national knowledge so it may get
rid by at least a few people.