Paul has written a good column on the growth of do-it-yourselfing here. He specifically mentions home repairs and home schooling.

Professional associations of carpenters, plumbers, painters, etc. would much rather than Americans did not engage in d-i-y projects and instead hired them. Ditto for professional associations of government school teachers, who don’t like it when parents disdain their services. The difference, of course, is a big one. You can avoid hiring a carpenter, but you can’t avoid paying the taxes that hire teachers.

Imagine if home repairs were handled the same as education. We’d all pay taxes that would entitle us to some amount of carpentry work done by the workers in our carpentry district. If we felt like doing our own carpentry, we’d still pay the taxes. Would even the nerviest union boss suggest such a thing?