LOL. You should see what it costs to be a doctor.
These “Licenses” were established for one reason only, To suppress competition”.
Competency testing would be more valuable, but then government would not appreciate the loss of taxes, which are fees. I’ve had supposedly trained Med techs who can’t judge the size of veins and blow or miss them.
Neighbor just had brakes put on car, they used faulty crap and forgot 1 pad or it fell off, his disc drums are now ruined this is on a Vintage VETT.
This is serious and goes beyond barbering. The bureaucracy, requiring uneeded formal and costly training to enter so many trades is doing great harm. Go find a shoemaker, tailor, dressmaker, carpenter or members of other vanishing trades.
I’m a watchmaker, fourth generation, but in a trade rapidly vanishing. Put at the bench at age 10, and trained by a father and uncle through Junior High, High school, and two years of Junior College. Three young classmates were apprenticed to their uncles and became watchmakers. Other youngsters became plumbers, carpenters, shoemakers, tailors and many other trades, taught ON THE JOB by professionals.
Through that system, carried forth for two hundred years, people everywhere could easily find the needed skills and services that keep society going.
Now, in my trade, I have people driving 50 or more miles to find me. People wait for a plumber as the water in the cellar rises.
Graduates of TECHNICAL High Scools get their diploma on a Saturday and report Monday for an ADULT professional job.
College graduates, deeply in debt, receive a useless degree and on Monday start a fruitless hunt for a job, ANY job at all.
Something is definitely out of whack.
These fees are what Adam Smith called rent seeking. They are lobbied for to prevent others from entering the progression.
Hmmm, earlier this week, I talking to a girl that had just completed all her hairdressing requirements while doing a 5 stretch for bank robbery.
That’s about the only way most people find the time to go through all the required “training”.