This article has some good points about the trouble that conservatives will face when fighting for limited government, but there are a lot of areas that conservatives could win political capital that they aren't even trying to get. The most significant one that comes to mind is attacking the "expert culture" that liberals have foisted on this country. There are many jobs that don't require professional licenses ranging from interior decorating, to hair styling, to many of the basic routine procedures like performing x-rays on medical patients. It's not that these jobs are by nature open to every Tom, Dick and Harry who wants to get into them, but rather that the threshold to get into them is set unnecessarily high for those who, with a little bit of training at a community college, or demonstrated personal expereince could perform them admirably.
Scaling back the licensing requirements would open up new business opportunities for many people. Imagine, instead of having to go to the hospital to get a x-ray taken, a poor medical patient could go to "1-hour X-Ray" with a note from their doctor's office explaining what he or she needs, the work is done for $20-$25, and the patient gets to shop for their groceries while the picture is developed. Conservatives should attack the left based on how its approach invariably cuts down on choice, which naturally tends to cause inconvience and higher prices. Instead of attacking Medicare, conservatives should be putting forth a plan to allow for a 50% increase in the enrollment at all medical schools, and the accrediation of many new medical schools so that competition for students can increase (hopefully cutting down on their tuition) and more doctors can enter the market.
Blue collar workers could also benefit from this if conservatives would take actions like eliminating taxi medallions and replacing them with a special driver's license that costs a thousand dollars a year (as opposed to the outrageously high costs of a taxi medallion in most cities). If done right, this is an issue that conservatives could use to cut a broad swath across class lines in appealing to the public.
Scaling back the licensing requirements would open up new business opportunities for many people. Imagine, instead of having to go to the hospital to get a x-ray taken, a poor medical patient could go to "1-hour X-Ray" with a note from their doctor's office explaining what he or she needs, the work is done for $20-$25, and the patient gets to shop for their groceries while the picture is developed. Conservatives should attack the left based on how its approach invariably cuts down on choice, which naturally tends to cause inconvience and higher prices. Instead of attacking Medicare, conservatives should be putting forth a plan to allow for a 50% increase in the enrollment at all medical schools, and the accrediation of many new medical schools so that competition for students can increase (hopefully cutting down on their tuition) and more doctors can enter the market.
Blue collar workers could also benefit from this if conservatives would take actions like eliminating taxi medallions and replacing them with a special driver's license that costs a thousand dollars a year (as opposed to the outrageously high costs of a taxi medallion in most cities). If done right, this is an issue that conservatives could use to cut a broad swath across class lines in appealing to the public.
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and the patient gets to shop for their groceries while the picture is developed.
Developed? Dude, that stuff is all digital now.
But I agree. Professional licensing by the government is just stupid. I can't think of one license that government should require that a private standards organization couldn't handle better. I thought I had a blog post on this but I can't find it. I've been complaining about this for years. For example, why does someone that cuts hair need a government license? As you said, it's just an artificial barrier to entry.
What I meant is that while the technician is getting around to printing out and organizing the results, the patient is able to go about their business in the shopping center.