The number of jobs that require an occupational license now covers 30% of the US workforce, up from 5% in 1950. Original Article: “Occupational Licensing — An Unnecessary Evil”
You’re a twenty-something student and have recently graduated. You’re excited to go and take on the world. However, you owe over $50,000. All you wanted to do is gain an education. This massive debt now looms over you. How can the world be so unfair? Why shouldn’t this education be free like the other forms are? Shouldn’t education be a right?
Listen to the Audio Mises Wire version of this article. Occupational licensing comes under the guise of protecting the consumer from poor quality service. Professions that require licensing in the US include; nursing, law, dentistry, teaching, accounting, psychology, engineering, and architecture — among many others. This is to ensure that the
The federal government spends more than $20 billion a year on subsidies for farm businesses. About 39 percent of the nation’s 2.1 million farms receive subsidies, with the lion’s share of the handouts going to the largest producers of corn, soybeans, wheat, cotton, and rice. What these subsidies have done is create a floor for food prices. This is
Housing is one of the main drivers in the cost of living. Government increases this cost through zoning regulations, complicated impact fees, and permitting delays. This is a fact that was even acknowledged by the Obama administration when it stated: “Barriers to housing development are exacerbating the housing affordability crisis, particularly
The physician shortage is real, present, and only set to worsen. A recent analysis by the of American Medical Association Colleges projected a shortage of up to 122,000 physicians by 2032. This is firstly impacted by an ageing population. As the baby boomers come into retirement, demand will increase rapidly. To make matters worse, roughly 33
What is the Mises Institute?
The Mises Institute is a non-profit organization that exists to promote teaching and research in the Austrian School of economics, individual freedom, honest history, and international peace, in the tradition of Ludwig von Mises and Murray N. Rothbard.
Non-political, non-partisan, and non-PC, we advocate a radical shift in the intellectual climate, away from statism and toward a private property order. We believe that our foundational ideas are of permanent value, and oppose all efforts at compromise, sellout, and amalgamation of these ideas with fashionable political, cultural, and social doctrines inimical to their spirit.