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Legislators should mind their own business Colorado Springs Gazette Editorial 4/11/07 Most of the nanny-state measures churned out by legislators at the state and federal level are based on an insulting premise — that most Americans are mindless Bozos who can’t think for themselves or act in their own best interests. A nanny-statist, as we define the term, is someone who purports to care more for people than people care for themselves. And with statists firmly in charge at the Statehouse, there’s no shortage of such measures still in play, according to “Bills would provide business oversight,” a report in Monday’s Gazette.
“Oversight,” of course, means licensing, regulating and more barriers to entrepreneurship. And most of the trades or businesses in the crosshairs don’t need more of this, if we assume — as we do — that Coloradans are competent consumers. An argument might be made — might — for state licensing of naturopathic doctors, since they can have a direct impact on public health and safety. But most of the other trades on the regulator’s wish list — including sports trainers, landscape architects, plumbing contractors, interior designers, luxury limousine operators and moving company workers — are best regulated not by the state, which has better things to do with its resources and people, but by the market, which can sort the wheat from the chaff with ruthless efficiency, assuming consumers exercise a modicum of due diligence.
We were relieved to learn in The Gazette that proposals to licence art therapists, private investigators, mortuary workers and tobacco sellers have fallen by the wayside. We hope common sense will prevail in these other cases, as well.
The vast majority of Coloradans are perfectly capable of choosing a landscape architect, interior designer, athletic trainers or limousine service without help from the state. They make inquiries, check references, rely on reputable companies, or seek referrals from those they trust when hiring such people. And if one of these practitioners turn out to be unreliable or disreputable, word will spread and they won’t last long. People who fall victim to bad actors can stop payment, file a complaint with the Better Business Bureau or take the offender to court, if necessary. And it will be a lesson learned for those who get burned: they’ll emerge from the experience, we hope, as more street-savvy consumers.
People who can’t or won’t exercise due diligence are vulnerable to being taken advantage of, no doubt. But we step out on a slippery slope when we ask government to look out for people who can’t or won’t look out for themselves.
A second major objection to the state’s regulation of such tradespeople is that it serves as a barrier to opportunity and entrepreneurship. More state oversight almost invariably entails more hoops to jump through, and more costs to incur, for the start-up businessperson. Frequently, those pushing hardest for such regulations are those already established in one of these businesses and want to eliminate potential competitors by throwing hurdles in their way. There’s a great deal of self interest, and an anti-competitive impulse, behind such pushes, in other words.
Senate Minority Leader Andy McElhany hit the nail on the head when he said this re-creates a “medieval guild system” in which a select few are allowed to dominate a trade or industry. If we want Colorado to be a fertile ground for entrepreneurship and enterprise, erecting barriers to entry-level businesspeople is counterproductive. The winnowing of competition puts consumers at a disadvantage.
Gov. Bill Ritter could do the state a favor, and demonstrate his bona fides as a business-friendly Democrat, by using his veto pen to draw a line in the sand against such measures. Ritter on Monday vetoed another nanny state bill, HB-1122, which required that larger public schools hire a licensed physical education instructors, saying he thought the bill meddled too much in decisions schools could make on their own. He should follow this precedent, and apply this reasoning to every bill that comes across his desk.
Maybe that will encourage nanny-statists of both parties to focus on the governing essentials, instead of sticking their noses into other peoples’ businesses. |
