Monday, May 14, 2012

In Answer to a Reader about Licensure

My recent TOS post, "It's time to End Occupational Licensure," a reader left the following comment:


Posted by Angie DetriotCollapse; We should end all government certification of trades and professionals as well.   If you want to fly a plan,  just buy one and take it up into the skies.  Who is the government to say you know what you'r doing.  You want to be a dentist?  Buy a chair and get her done!
I posted the following answer:


Operating licensure is outside the scope of this post. 
But as to that “dentist,” unscrupulous practitioners can (and do) operate on the fringes of any occupation. That’s why we have anti-fraud and criminal negligence laws and the like. Government should vigorously enforce these laws, rather than hamper honorable, productive people with licensure requirements.
Civil court redress is also available to anyone believed to have been harmed as a result of work performed by unqualified personnel. 
In a free market, there are strong legal and market incentives for tradesmen and professionals to voluntarily seek certifications in their occupational fields from trusted accreditation firms, as their own judgments dictate. All we need from government is for it to do its job of protecting individual rights.

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