Veshi & Ruhle blew it on Occupational Licensing.

[TomSlick]

Velshi & Ruhle ran a story today attacking occupational licensing. In a very one sided story, Velshi & Ruhle gave coverage only to the ALEC spokesman to attack States' occupational licensing.

We have been fighting this battle for Arkansas for four years. Every session, one of the ALEC-purchased legislators introduces legislation to do away with almost all professional and occupational licensing - no licensing for accountants, engineers, architects, etc. The theory is that if an unlicensed electrician burns down a couple houses, the market will take care of it.

There is no question but that States like Arkansas have some licensing requirements that make little sense. The solution is to look at these individually and correct any problems. The solution is not to loose untrained and unqualified people on an unsuspecting public.

Veshi and Ruhle presented only one side of the issue without any examination into what is being attempted by ALEC.

I am a big MSNBC fan - but they blew it this time.

[elleng]

1. Thanks for the info.

Let them know.

[AJT]

2. Hmmmmm, coincidentally we've had that exact same legislation introduced in WI.

[TomSlick]

3. This is BIG on ALEC's wish list.

The bill introduced in Arkansas - in two consecutive sessions - is straight off the ALEC website.

ALEC has a lot of money and uses it to purchase Repugnant state legislators.

[old guy]

8. I saw the article in the Capitol Times.

My first thoughts were the problems it will cause for cross border workers. I guarantee that you will not be employed as an electrician in Mn. without an up to date license. If Wi. doesn't require you to have one, you will still have to get one in Mn. or you won't work.

[moondust]

4. Sounds like "Uberization."

Accountants, engineers, and architects can be gig workers, too!

[Herb Spence]

5. What about the real heart of the matter?

Do individual people have rights to freely associate, or not? Is it to be assumed that we’re all helpless children, incapable of discerning what is in our own interest or not? We’re to outsource all our due diligence & our decision-making to a gaggle of bureaucrats - who are inevitably going to fall under the thumb of the highest-bidding interested rent-seekers?

[TomSlick]

6. You have the right to associate with whom ever you will.

However, you may not hold yourself out as being a plumber qualified to install gas lines in a home unless you have gotten some training.

If a government does not protect its citizens from the dangers of unqualified people holding themselves out as working in an occupation that requires training is not worth the trouble.

[enough]

7. Then there are the times when fires engulf public spaces in seconds with no chance of escape,

or buildings fall over or on people unexpectedly (thinking of two recent local events), or raw sewage ends up to entering neighbors' water supply, etc etc. Do we need any kind of expertise at all in the world of human constitution which we live? Or is it just free association?

[genxlib]

9. As someone that is licensed to practice engineering

That is some idiotic libertarian bullshit right there.

[Crunchy Frog]

11. Yes, but you don't have the right to pass yourself off as a professional

without the requisite credentials. Freedom and fraud are not the same things.

[JCMach1]

10. Over credentialing in this country is a big problem.

Let me just point out one. I am a college professor who also taught a number of years at the secondary level. I have even taught the education courses necessary for education majors who want to become English teachers.

If I want to teach HS in the state of Texas, I would have to do student teaching and a crappy training program to get a license.

I am a freaking Prof!!!

Yes, there are some seriously messed up licensing problems in this country.

[TomSlick]

12. Unquestionably.

However, the answer is not to simply eliminate all professional and occupational licensing. ALEC is using a few examples of licensing regulations that need correcting to argue that ALL licensing should be eliminated. ALEC is pushing the elimination of all regulation with occupational licensing as only one example.