Welfare spending, as defined by the study, is any means-tested program providing cash or in-kind benefits.
Are these the kinds of programs we would expect to reduce poverty? No, and then the study goes on to say we should move spending from these into things that will lower the poverty rate.
Lower the poverty rate by all means, but increased welfare spending isn’t something we would expect to lower the poverty rate. The two are rather unrelated.
Child labor laws prevent kids under age 16 from working. Alex is referring to the barriers to entry that trade associations erect (using licensure and certification) to keep other willing labor market participants from competing with them.
Evidence of this is everywhere. When I was a young accounting graduate, you only had to have one year of experience working under a CPA (and pass the exam) to add that designation to your business card. Now, the American Association of Certified Public Accountants requires six years of experience under a CPA. A recent article in the New York Times discussed how the American Nurses Association is awarding a “magnet” designation to hospitals that meet a certain ratio of registered nurses with four-year degrees (as opposed to two-year RNs or LVNS). The goal is to make it harder to become an RN — thus driving up salaries of those with that designation.
The association that represents advanced practice nurses now has turned their degree (formerly a master’s degree) into a doctorate.
Medical associations lobby to prevent advanced practice nurses and physicians’ assistants from expanding their scope of practice and working independently of MDs and DOs (btw, MDs did their best to prevent DOs and chiropractors from practicing medicine).
At a conference recently, I ran into a professional association of community dentists. I asked them what their public policy issues were. They only had two: prevent mid-level dental technicians from practicing independently; prevent specialty dentists from preventing community dentists from performing specialty procedures. At the same conference, I talked to a professional association representing optometrists. Their primary issue was protecting their scope of practice from ophthalmologists, who would put them out of business or prevent them from practicing independently if they could.
Licensure and certification are both protectionist tools that professional associations use to prevent competition. For the most part, they do more harm than good for consumers.
Emergency department crowding is growing twice as fast as visits and will rise to unsustainable proportions.
You need a license before you can enter more than 1,000 professions in the United States.
These two articles, although seemingly unrelated, stem from the same problem. If physician licensure wasn’t maintained as a cartel, uninsured patients, and those with government insurance, would have more options when they need care in a hurry. Too often, they are forced to go to the emergency room when they find themselves in need of care but cannot wait weeks to see a doctor.
The poverty rate is an inaccurate measure of well being. It assumes that reported family money income is an accurate reflection of material well being. Another way of saying it is that consumption is the same as reported income.
That hasn’t been the case for decades, and the discrepency between the consumption of those in poverty and reported incomes has widened substantially. The poorest households spent about 112 percent of reported income in 1960/1. In 2002, families were spending 229 percent of reported income. Per capita real income has risen slightly.
Obviously, I should have read the article to which Alex was referring, so that I would know it was talking about PROFESSIONAL licenses, not driver’s licenses, which are colloquially referred to as simply licenses.
My sincerest apologies, Alex.
@Devon, it is well understood by businesspeople that the easiest way to make a profit often isn’t through innovation. This is just one such example.
I can understand getting a license to be a doctor or lawyer, but they really are unnecessary in most industries and simply amount to protectionism.
Welfare spending, as defined by the study, is any means-tested program providing cash or in-kind benefits.
Are these the kinds of programs we would expect to reduce poverty? No, and then the study goes on to say we should move spending from these into things that will lower the poverty rate.
Lower the poverty rate by all means, but increased welfare spending isn’t something we would expect to lower the poverty rate. The two are rather unrelated.
Protectionism!? Protectionism from what, the under-16 labor force!?
Child labor laws prevent kids under age 16 from working. Alex is referring to the barriers to entry that trade associations erect (using licensure and certification) to keep other willing labor market participants from competing with them.
Evidence of this is everywhere. When I was a young accounting graduate, you only had to have one year of experience working under a CPA (and pass the exam) to add that designation to your business card. Now, the American Association of Certified Public Accountants requires six years of experience under a CPA. A recent article in the New York Times discussed how the American Nurses Association is awarding a “magnet” designation to hospitals that meet a certain ratio of registered nurses with four-year degrees (as opposed to two-year RNs or LVNS). The goal is to make it harder to become an RN — thus driving up salaries of those with that designation.
The association that represents advanced practice nurses now has turned their degree (formerly a master’s degree) into a doctorate.
Medical associations lobby to prevent advanced practice nurses and physicians’ assistants from expanding their scope of practice and working independently of MDs and DOs (btw, MDs did their best to prevent DOs and chiropractors from practicing medicine).
At a conference recently, I ran into a professional association of community dentists. I asked them what their public policy issues were. They only had two: prevent mid-level dental technicians from practicing independently; prevent specialty dentists from preventing community dentists from performing specialty procedures. At the same conference, I talked to a professional association representing optometrists. Their primary issue was protecting their scope of practice from ophthalmologists, who would put them out of business or prevent them from practicing independently if they could.
Licensure and certification are both protectionist tools that professional associations use to prevent competition. For the most part, they do more harm than good for consumers.
These two articles, although seemingly unrelated, stem from the same problem. If physician licensure wasn’t maintained as a cartel, uninsured patients, and those with government insurance, would have more options when they need care in a hurry. Too often, they are forced to go to the emergency room when they find themselves in need of care but cannot wait weeks to see a doctor.
The poverty rate is an inaccurate measure of well being. It assumes that reported family money income is an accurate reflection of material well being. Another way of saying it is that consumption is the same as reported income.
That hasn’t been the case for decades, and the discrepency between the consumption of those in poverty and reported incomes has widened substantially. The poorest households spent about 112 percent of reported income in 1960/1. In 2002, families were spending 229 percent of reported income. Per capita real income has risen slightly.
Obviously, I should have read the article to which Alex was referring, so that I would know it was talking about PROFESSIONAL licenses, not driver’s licenses, which are colloquially referred to as simply licenses.
My sincerest apologies, Alex.
@Devon, it is well understood by businesspeople that the easiest way to make a profit often isn’t through innovation. This is just one such example.
@Eric, I just LOLed. Thanks for making my afternoon.
Unbelievable how bureaucracy has taken control of occupational licensing.