North Carolina imposes twice as many laws occupational-licensing laws as South Carolina does, yet consumers in our state do not appear to be any safer or better-served. I’ve written about the issue of occupational licensing before, but having just re-read Adam Summer’s excellent Reason Foundation paper on the subject, released last summer, I’d like to again commend it to your attention. A key passage:
While occupational licensing laws are billed as a means of protecting the public from negligent, unqualified, or otherwise substandard practitioners, in reality they are simply a means of utilizing government regulation to serve narrow economic interests. Such special-interest legislation is designed not to protect consumers, but rather than protect existing business interests from competition.
