Friday, May 11, 2012

The Growing Horror of Occupational Licensure

My latest post at the Objective Standard Blog deals with a subject that should concern all Americans. The opening sentence:


A virulent epidemic is violating American’s rights and sapping the U.S. economy: occupational licensure.
From It's Time to End Occupational Licensure.

Freedom and Individual Rights in Medicine (FIRM) featured my post, and cited a new study from the Institute for Justice concerning the same subject. The IJ study highlights the particular burden licensing requirements put on the young and the poor. It cites 102 lower-income occupations burdened by licensure which, in effect, kicks the bottom rungs of the proverbial economic "ladder of success" out from under many motivated would-be productive citizens.

The licensure issue brings to mind Ayn Rand's warning:

When you see that trading is done, not by consent, but by compulsion–when you see that in order to produce, you need to obtain permission from men who produce nothing–when you see that money is flowing to those who deal, not in goods, but in favors–when you see that men get richer by graft and by pull than by work, and your laws don’t protect you against them, but protect them against you–when you see corruption being rewarded and honesty becoming a self-sacrifice–you may know that your society is doomed. --Francisco d'Anconia, a character in Atlas Shrugged.

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