There are so many ways in which the cost of living is quietly inflated by rules and regulations passed under the guise of “safety and security.”
Oddly enough, most of these measures don’t work at all. As I wrote:
The precautionary principle is spreading into the workplace as well. In 1950, just 5% of American jobs required a license to perform them; today 30% do. This is due, in part, to a shift in the American labor force away from low-skilled manufacturing and toward high-skilled services. It’s also a function, however, of overzealous state regulators and lobbying by professional groups under the specious guise of “safety and health.” Studies examining the effects of occupational licensing have not found any discernible health/safety benefits. For example, Kleiner and Kudrle found no correlation between the difficulty of passing a dental license exam and the quality of dentistry. Similarly, studies have found that more stringent licensing of mortgage brokers does not result in fewer foreclosures.
My wife passed the Dental Hygienist National Board Examination 2 years ago and large swaths of the exam were on corner cases that she hasn't seen since (and would look up online if she encountered them in her job). Several of her classmates failed the Boards by only a couple points. It's crazy that errata would prevent qualified hygienists from getting jobs!
Nice work Tahra
There are so many ways in which the cost of living is quietly inflated by rules and regulations passed under the guise of “safety and security.”
Oddly enough, most of these measures don’t work at all. As I wrote:
The precautionary principle is spreading into the workplace as well. In 1950, just 5% of American jobs required a license to perform them; today 30% do. This is due, in part, to a shift in the American labor force away from low-skilled manufacturing and toward high-skilled services. It’s also a function, however, of overzealous state regulators and lobbying by professional groups under the specious guise of “safety and health.” Studies examining the effects of occupational licensing have not found any discernible health/safety benefits. For example, Kleiner and Kudrle found no correlation between the difficulty of passing a dental license exam and the quality of dentistry. Similarly, studies have found that more stringent licensing of mortgage brokers does not result in fewer foreclosures.
My wife passed the Dental Hygienist National Board Examination 2 years ago and large swaths of the exam were on corner cases that she hasn't seen since (and would look up online if she encountered them in her job). Several of her classmates failed the Boards by only a couple points. It's crazy that errata would prevent qualified hygienists from getting jobs!
Why should you need a permit at all to do a retrofit