Helping people without a license
Live BlogYou can have a complaint filed against you for explaining traffic patterns too well. You need a license to braid hair, and there are even hurdles to opening a hot dog stand. buy viagra canada...
View ArticleFreedom in the States
Live Blog North Carolina ranks 18th in overall freedom for its citizens in a new Mercatus Center publication. Some highlights from my perspective North Carolina has the best a buy purchase viagra...
View ArticleNPR producers get it: Occupational licensing is thinly veiled protectionism...
I have to admit most NPR shows are, to put it gently, not to my liking. However, they are now exposing the lunacy of occupational licensing, and I commend them for this audio segment and article. Click...
View ArticleFor midwifery without a superfluous state apparatus
My latest newsletter looks at the Home Birth Freedom Act before the General Assembly, which would legalize midwifery in North Carolina (yes) and establish a state licensing board for midwives (no). I...
View Article‘Not every entrepreneur is a Bill Gates or a Henry Ford’
Powerful words before a U.S. House subcommittee by an African hair braider who helped beat back Mississippi’s licensure requirements on African hair braiders: Every day across Mississippi, hundreds of...
View ArticleRegulatory reform should mean MORE freedom, not less
To their credit, Republicans have passed regulatory reform acts in three straight years. That’s important because research has consistently shown a link between burdensome state regulations and...
View ArticleHair braiders file suits in three states. Is NC next?
The Institute for Justice has announced lawsuits in three different states — Arkansas, Missouri, and Washington — as part of its Braiding Freedom initiative. North Carolina recently acquiesced to...
View ArticleRegulatory reform should mean MORE freedom, not less — II
Gee, I hate to start numbering this, but it’s beginning to look like a necessity. The first post pointing out the obvious, that regulatory reform should mean more freedom, not less, concerned Senate...
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House Republicans pass bill to expand occupational licensure
I’m trying to understand why House Republicans think behavioral analysts suddenly need to be licensed by the state. A true party of reform would seek to curtail occupational licensure, not expand it....
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Over $60 million spent on Occupationl Licensing Fees in NC
Occupational licensing is a form of government regulation that requires a license to pursue a particular profession or vocation. Many associate this with licenses obtained by physicians or lawyers,...
View ArticleTwo licensing-board overreaches put on ice
(A little snow-day headline humor. OK, granted, a very little.) My newsletter today discusses the case against occupational licensing and the conclusions of two long-running disputes over actions by...
View ArticleE.g., what Edwards and Nichol would’ve never published
I’ve been reading a very important study entitled “Bootstraps Tangled in Red Tape: How State Occupational Licensing Hinders Low-Income Entrepreneurship.” I noticed that the author, Stephen Slivinski,...
View ArticleWait, they want to make the Dietetics/Nutrition board stronger?
The tug of cronyism at the legislature is always strong. Powerful special interests with clear, sizable gains to themselves always have the time and financial incentives to lobby lawmakers. The general...
View ArticleMore red tape = more income inequality
Last week I had the honor of speaking in favor of occupational licensing reform before a legislative oversight committee (you can view my presentation here). Among other things, I spoke of research...
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Teeth whiteners case underscores cartel arrangement of licensing
George Will discusses the issue at stake in the Connecticut teeth whiteners’ dispute: The case concerns a minor economic activity, teeth whitening, but a major principle: Can a state limit Americans’...
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Choose labor freedom, not licensing
The good news is, as I wrote in my 2013 Carolina Cronyism report on occupational licensing: Lawmakers don’t face a Hobson’s Choice of either licensure or nothing. Instead, as Lee McGrath of the...
View ArticleMore labor freedom coming? Draft bill would remove 15 occupational licensing...
This would be welcome news, for reasons I’ve made explicit in newsletters and reports. Per NC Capitol Connection: A state legislative subcommittee approved draft legislation Thursday that would...
View ArticleWhy there’s always way more lobbying FOR occupational licensing than AGAINST it
My newsletter explains that and a few other issues concerning licensing. It’s the problem of public-choice economics. As I wrote here about a similar problem: Do legislators serve the interests of...
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There are many ways to ensure safety without the policy extreme of...
Reforming occupational licensing is one of those rare political ideas that unites right, left, and center. But it faces fierce opposition from the highly self-interested cronies, which to anyone who...
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How North Carolina compares in terms of unnecessarily licensing hair braiders
A new Institute for Justice report focuses on the folly of some states — North Carolina included! — of requiring an occupational license to practice African hair braiding. This is “a traditional art...
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