Today in History: London becomes the world's first city to host licensed taxicabs on this day in 1897. This makes you think: what is a license, really? "What does a business license accomplish? Well, I guess it proves that you're seriously in business, although in most cities you can't be in business without one. So it's outright extortion, like property taxes, going to fund city government services that you didn't want anyway. Police? Well, maybe you do want police protection of your property, but police won't go near a riot and they're always too busy elsewhere, so you'll have to pay extra to hire your own." Robert Klassen
Why do you have a license on your car when the manufacturer has already placed a number on your car? This is so the government can track you, and they also want the fee a license costs. "The fee, of course, goes to support a state bureaucracy consisting of bored and indifferent individuals who are only working there for the wages and benefits and who couldn't care less about their career, if you can call it that." ibid
According to a 2015 White House report, "By one estimate, licensing restrictions cost millions of jobs nationwide and raise consumer expenses by over one hundred billion dollars...Consumers are likely most familiar with licensing requirements for professionals like dentists, lawyers, and physicians, but today licensing requirements extend to a very broad set of workers," including auctioneers, scrap metal recyclers, barbers, manicurists, eyebrow threaders, and tour guides. This means that an ever-growing share of jobs "are only accessible to those with the time and means to complete what are often lengthy"—not to mention expensive—licensing requirements, while the penalties for working without a license can include job loss, fines, and even incarceration.
Perhaps we need to be more like cats. You have to license your dog, but not your cat. Cats refuse to be licensed. They are too independent, stubborn, stuck-up and disobedient.
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