On Thu, Aug 30, 2012 at 8:26 AM, Adam Barrett <[email protected]> wrote: > Maybe we should reconsider all this... make a yearly dues for all > members joining after today.
We all laugh, but this exactly how "artificial barriers to entry" come to fruition. Consider for example getting your haircut. A number of barbers begin doing business. Business is good. The barbers are busy and happy and because they are busy, they can charge more per haircut. Now others see that there is plenty of business being a barber. So they become barbers. Suddenly, the existing barbers aren't as busy as they'd like. They form an association. They lobby the legislature. They say "In order to protect customers against <horror of all horrors> a bad hair cut, we need to have licensing." Of course who better to decide who can be a barber than the existing association of barbers. So they go out and require courses and tests - of course the test is tough and not everyone passes. In fact the number of new barbers who enter into business is directly correlated with the how many new barbers the association is willing to let in - which the associate controls by controlling the courses and tests, etc. Here is a list of associations which have artificial barriers to entry: AMA, ADA, Utah Bar Association, PSIA. PSIA - Professional Ski Instructors of America. I belong to this. The tests are very tough and getting tougher. This exists everywhere in almost all industries. In Utah in order to cut someone's finger nails professionally you have to be licensed. We should start an association of IT professionals - along with legislation prohibiting anyone from providing any professional IT services without certification from the - well us. We're all automatically certified. And yes, we only care about the customer. After all you won't want someone to mess up something as important as your computer. Well yes, we expect to see an increase in wages - but that's besides the point. Washington wants to lower health care costs? Easy fix. While Obama was spending money on the smell of pigs, etc., he should have been spending the billions to build medical schools, then mandating to the AMA the number of new doctors who will be admitted to the field. The fact of the matter is that doctors don't mind the high cost of medical care - which will only get more expensive - especially as the population ages. Why? For the same reason that person who cuts your hair doesn't mind that he/she earns of higher wage due to the license that he/she holds. I'm not for abolishing all licensing - mind you - it has its place in certain industries. However, keep in mind that when a group meets.. "People of the same trade seldom meet together, even for merriment and diversion, but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the public, or in some contrivance to raise prices. It is impossible indeed to prevent such meetings, by any law which either could be executed, or would be consistent with liberty or justice. But though the law cannot hinder people of the same trade from sometimes assembling together, it ought to do nothing to facilitate such assemblies; much less to render them necessary." Adam Smith. _______________________________________________ UPHPU mailing list [email protected] http://uphpu.org/mailman/listinfo/uphpu IRC: #uphpu on irc.freenode.net
