Most people favor competition unless it is directed against their own hard-won position. The famous Bastiat petition of candlemakers protesting the free light from the sun is the best example.
In our world, equivalent regulations are the certifications of just about everything. They are often legislated as being in the “common good,” but are mostly promulgated by established businesses and would-be guilds of skilled workers. And all of them involve obtaining a license before committing harm, unlike other laws.
Maybe it makes sense to license or certify restaurants, although even that gets silly when applied to bake sales or kids selling hot dogs or lemonade. But there is truly no sense at all to certifying bankers, nail specialists, or bicycle riders. Or teachers.
Petty irritations like this mount up and give government a bad name. In fact, outside of taxes, it is where almost all of our irritation with government occurs.
Our mythology in the US is that of the frontier. You didn’t need fancy papers to do anything, you just did it (or not.) Evil was punished but not prevented except by example of earlier criminals. We still dream of such freedom.
For ourselves, anyway. Because those damn neighbors and immigrants better not impinge on my hard-earned situation. Let them get their own certification and license, just as I had to.
HuntingtonHarborThoughts 