idb
Gold Member
- Dec 26, 2010
- 14,971
- 2,577
- 265
So Obama is trying to create the USSA is he?
It's already here!
Karl Marx would be proud.
I wonder what a visit from the union heavies would look like!
Schumpeter: Rules for fools | The Economist
It's already here!
Karl Marx would be proud.
I wonder what a visit from the union heavies would look like!
Schumpeter: Rules for fools | The Economist
IN 1941 Franklin Roosevelt added two new items to Americas ancestral freedoms of speech and worship: freedom from fear and freedom from want. Todays politicians offer a far more generous menu: freedom from unlicensed hair-cutters, freedom from cowboy flower-arrangers and, most important of all, freedom from rogue interior designers. What is the point of enjoying freedom from fear or want, after all, if you cannot enjoy freedom from poorly co-ordinated colour schemes?
In the 1950s, when organisation man ruled, fewer than 5% of American workers needed licences. Today, after three decades of deregulation, the figure is almost 30%. Add to that people who are preparing to obtain a licence or whose jobs involve some form of certification and the share is 38%. Other rich countries impose far fewer fetters than the land of the free. In Britain only 13% of workers need licences (though that has doubled in 12 years).
The list of jobs that require licences in some states already sounds like something from Monty Pythonflorists, handymen, wrestlers, tour guides, frozen-dessert sellers, firework operatives, second-hand booksellers and, of course, interior designersbut it will become sillier still if ambitious cat-groomers and dog-walkers get their way.