She asks me why
Here's a surprising story: If you want to braid hair for foster kids in Oregon, you have to take 1,700 hours of training and get a full cosmetology license. Apparently, it's easier to become an emergency medical technician or a firefighter. And the Beaver State is not alone in this regard.
| Posted at 8:44 AM | Permalink |
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Comments (8)
You gotta love the headline though. I would've had it read that government and common sense are sometimes (often?) not on the same planet.
Posted by Jason | July 6, 2012 9:37 AM
So is it about the license... or the license fees? Thought I remembered an 82 yr old barber having to shut his doors. Guess experience doesn't count.
http://www.kgw.com/home/Unlicensed-Sherwood-barber-calls-it-quits-116268044.html
Posted by EltearPDX | July 6, 2012 9:59 AM
"So is it about the license... or the license fees?"
Going to go out on a limb...thinking it used to be about the license and safety....but today's government is all about the fees...they could care less about safety or anything else...just hand over your money.
Posted by thaddeus | July 6, 2012 10:09 AM
From the states perspective, it's about money so agree licenses are needed. But the ideas come from special interest groups protecting themselves from what is supposedly unskilled upstarts, ie job protection.
Posted by Darrin | July 6, 2012 11:06 AM
Just look at the Board of Cosmetology, 4 of the 6 are practicing and one is an instructor. As Darrin alludes to, they have a financial interest in keeping people out or forcing them into inane education requirements.
http://www.oregon.gov/OHLA/COS/Pages/about_us.aspx
Posted by Michael Pingree | July 6, 2012 4:51 PM
Why should we, the government, require a license for any profession ?
Posted by tankfixer | July 7, 2012 4:31 PM
Because doctors and dentists?
Posted by zach | July 7, 2012 7:23 PM
Zach, having passed many licenses for many things, including the bar, I can tell you licensure does not protect the public. I was no more competent to practice law the day after I passed the bar than before, no more honest a broker after passing my Series 7, nor any more knowledgeable about the mortgage industry after passing that silly test in '06.
Licensure actually harms the public by making you think you can walk into anyone's office who has their permission slip from the state and, without any due diligence on your part, lie back and let whatever happens, happen.
Bernie Madoff was licensed. The hundreds of doctors stripped of their license for malpractice each year were licensed until such time as their alcohol habit, or codeine habit, or gambling addiction, or whatever overtook their professionalism.
Especially in an era where it's hard enough to get a job, licensure protects the connected and further disenfranchises the poor and under-connected.
Posted by Don Smith | July 10, 2012 11:43 PM