My show tonight tonight asks, why do so many occupations need a license? Requiring permission from the state to do everything from flower arranging to practicing law paralyzes competition and protects entrenched special interests.Posted on 03/11/2010 4:29:19 AM PST by logician2u
My show tonight tonight asks, why do so many occupations need a license? Requiring permission from the state to do everything from flower arranging to practicing law paralyzes competition and protects entrenched special interests.
Our most outrageous example of licensing madness is the plight of David Price, a man who learned the hard way that no good deed goes unpunished, especially when messing with lawyers. Price made the mistake of helping Eldon Ray, a fellow Kansan who was fined for practicing architecture without a license. Price didn’t represent Ray in court; he just helped Ray by writing a letter to respond to the fine. In states like Kansas, that practically makes Price Perry Mason. A judge (a lawyer with a robe) threw Price into jail on contempt charges, not to be released until he promised to never give legal advice again – ever.
After six months, Price relented and agreed to the court’s terms. Judge Andrew Napolitano, Fox News senior judicial analyst, believes Price should never have spent a day in jail.
“The state has no moral or lawful authority to restrain A and B from agreeing to exchange a service for a payment, providing that the agreement is voluntary.”
Price ran afoul of Kansas’ Unauthorized Practice of Law (UPL) regulations. All states have them, although Arizona is one of a few that allow non-lawyers to prepare legal documents like wills. Unfortunately the non-lawyers still must pass an exam. But Arizona citizens are happy to have a lower-price option to expensive lawyers.
Judge Napolitano points out that licensing is a device that special interests use to protect special interests from competition.
“The concept of state licensing, if permitted to continue, will know no end. If the state can license physicians and lawyers, can it license broadcasters and journalists and shoemakers? A license from the state to do anything that another is willing to pay for is an interference with free choice. I would rather know from a source other than the state that Dr. Y graduated from Harvard Medical School or Attorney Z aced his exams at the University of Chicago Law School; then I could choose that physician or lawyer without seeking the permission of the state. The state steals what it owns and has no moral authority, except when it protects my freedom… the licensing mechanism is frequently a cartel of those in the profession to whom the power of the state is granted to keep like-minded persons in the cartel, and different thinkers out.”
For more on the insane expansion of states’ licensing powers watch “Stossel” tonight, on the Fox Business Network at 8PM and 11PM Eastern time. I’ll interview David Price, Judge Napolitano, and a lawyer who says Price should have been jailed.
Licensed doctors and lawyers and pharmacists and home remodelers have the potential to kill maybe a dozen people if they are totally incompetent and perhaps damage for life hundreds more, either physically or financially, before the long arm of the law drags them before a judge.
In fact, the license is likely to help them get away with it longer, and they will usually be protected by their fellow-licensed “peers”. Totally incompetent professionals often garner customers because they have a government piece of paper that the gullible trust.
See?
Hank
Legislators are bombarded with letters and calls from these perennial do-gooders and their friends wanting them to "do something," and what we get is more regulations, whether the industry needs them or not.
I have observed, too, that Republicans are as much responsible as Democrats for sponsoring and supporting regulations "for the chillun" or "to keep us safe."
Today, July 21, 2009 Kansas declared war on the United States. At the direction of Attorney General Steve Six, the State of Kansas Supreme Court today did the equivalent of firing a shot at Fort Sumner, the first shot of the American Civil War. The sheriff deputies arrested David Martin Price for failing to appear in the state¹s highest court even though his case had been removed to federal court and is currently in appeal. David Price¹s notice of appeal suspended the decision of US District Court Judge Sam Crow and the Tenth Circuit US Court of Appeals has not yet ruled on Kansas Attorney General Steve Six¹s motion to dismiss the federal appeal. The State of Kansas Supreme Court has previously violated federal laws by moving the state proceeding faster than the federal court, but Kansas Attorney General Steve Six has not informed the Kansas Supreme Court that the US Supreme Court has recently ruled that this form of obstruction of justice is unlawful and does not stop the federal court¹s jurisdiction.David Martin Price¹s ³crime² was aiding the rural minister Rev. Eldon Ray who was being prosecuted for ordering rafters for his church without an architect¹s license. The State of Kansas Legislature was so horrified that the state¹s judicial branch and professional licensing enforcement could be misused by corrupt state officials that they passed the Eldon Ray law and left $8 Million dollars out of the Kansas Supreme Court¹s budget.
When Attorney General Steve Six and the State of Kansas Supreme Court continued to prosecute Rev. Ray and his administrative hearing advocate David Martin Price for the practice of law, despite the US Department of Justice briefings that the conduct violated Price¹s First Amendment Rights and Kansas state laws expressly providing for layperson advocates in administrative hearings, the legislature took out another 16 million dollars from the State of Kansas Supreme Court¹s budget.
It is safe to say that in no readers¹ lifetime has a state openly seceded from federal rule of law in violation of the US Constitution¹s Supremacy Clause giving the exercise of federal jurisdiction priority over state proceedings.
Quacks who graduated from med school in the '60s and never kept up with modern medicine are probably still practicing, maltreating their patients and enjoying a healthy living -- all thanks to that piece of paper hanging on the office wall.
The eBay and Amazon ratings, Snell-rated motorcycle helmets, and Underwriter's Laboratories certification of electronic devices are all examples of non-governmentally-approved ratings, that are trusted by consumers. There's also Consumer's Reports. One could imagine independent ratings firms, which rate products, but which, unlike Moody's, can have those ratings verified by simple means.
If you think government is the only possible solution, you're really part of the problem.
Let's hope the Kansas Supreme Court and AG are equally determined to defy the feds when and if Obamacare becomes mandatory for everyone.
Common sense is not fearmongering. You are the one engaging in fearmaongering with your false “slippery slopes”. “If we require a medical degree and license to cut into a person’s brain, it will inevitbaly lead to government control over every minute detail of our lives!”
Honestly, I’m not willing to allow an untrained, unlicensed “doctor” kill a few dozen people, before he gets shut down by the government for manslaughter, or by a bunch of bad reviews on Yelp.com.
One of the biggest barriers to an efficient FREE MARKET is fraud and lack of tranparency. Individuals who sell products and services that are not what they appear to be (and can be deadly) destroy free markets. Reasonable licensing and regulation (and much current licensing and regulation is NOT reasonable) facilitates free markets.
Your “zero tolerance policy” for regulation is the exact same mentality fo those who implement “zero tolerance” policies in schools, for weapons and drugs that make no distinction between two-inch, plastic toy LEGO “guns” and loaded AK-47’s, or between dealing crack coaine in the halls and taking an Advil.
They are both blockheaded philosophies that assume that nobody is capable of exercising any common sense or judgment.
Libertarians would under-regulate everything for the same reason that Liberals would over-regulate everthing. Both groups are terrified of the idea of the exercise of common sense and judgment being required, once in a while. The Liberal solution is Nanny-Statism, the Libertarian solution is Anarchy. Both are fataly flawed and dangerous.
One of the reasons the software industry has been so spectacularly successful over the last thirty years is the total absence of government interference. Look for this to change soon, in this new recessionary environment with governments exceptionally hungry for new revenues.
Unlike Moody's, which for all intents and purposes is a tool of state and local governments. Or so I've heard.
Isn't it funny how Sen. Dodd and the other Democrats who say there wasn't enough regulation of financial markets before the meltdown seem to have a blind eye when it comes to Moody's and S&P, who some would say can be bought for the right price.
Well stated.
Good points. Thanks.
I can see having the state acknowledge someone has attended an accredited school and passed the required course, but I can NOT see having to pay a fee every year, going to required yearly courses and whatnot just to 'maintain' a license.
It's PURE revenue generation so the State can use us like living ATMs.
The defense of this practice is the same as that forwarded after the Chile earthquake: government regulation makes us safer. And believe it or not, there are those on Free Republic who echoed that sentiment!
I know I sleep better at night knowing my wife isn’t having her nails done by an UNLICENSED manicurist (shudder).
Intitial licensing fees for physicians range from around $200 to about $1,200 (California of course), with the average being around $600.
http://www.fsmb.org/usmle_eliinitial.html
I’d imagine renewal fees are much lower. States are not making big bucks off these licenses, and these fees are miniscule compared to the cost of medical school and other costs of doing business.
Your equating "zero tolerance" wrt drugs in schools with deregulation is an apples and oranges comparison, and you should know that. We trust school authorities to use good judgment and common sense when a student brings a plastic knives from home in her lunch bag? Of course not; that's why they call it zero tolerance -- these adults with masters and PhD degrees are incapable of differentiating benign objects used to eat with from weapons used to kill.
Either you believe the citizenry is capable of making their own choices -- in where and how they live, caring for themselves and their family, choosing products and services (to include educational facilities) -- or you believe the government, having superior information and well-trained (and licensed?) employees on the payroll, will make those kinds of decisions for you. It's as simple as that.
For myself, I put my money and my life on the people, with a single exception.
Electing the best candidates for public office.
When government makes unnecessary, burdensome regulations, the people should demand their repeal, and have the power to do this.
The people also have a right to demand, reasonable, common sense regulations that protect people, facilitate free markets, and bring some semblance of order to society.
Your absolutist views are why Libertarians are generally considered a laughing stock. The throw the baby out with the bath water approach is dangerous and stupid.
I am also fascinated by the fact the Libertarians always seem to foucs their fire on regulations and laws that actually have some legitimate purpose and prevent a lot of harm to society, rather and on the truly silly and burdensome ones.
It is always, “Legalize crack, heroin, pot and meth!”, or “Eliminate licensing for physicians”, not “That law dictating the exact size of lettering on store signs should be repealed”.
Watch John Stossel tonight and you will be even more fascinated.
As I said, I often like Stossel’s work. Unlike a lot of Libertarians, he often seems to target the truly silly regulations that cause far more harm than good. I don’t have Fox Business so I won’t be able to watch.
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