When you need a license from the state to pursue your livelihood, there are some hoops you have to jump through, some fees you have to pay, and maybe some special taxes. But in return for all this, the state gives you protection.
Wait — surely I meant to say that it gives protection to your customers, right? No, I mean that it gives you protection from other businesses, or individuals, who might want to compete with you.
Now, for a lot of people, this is bad news. For example, maybe you’re really great at braiding hair, and you braid it in ways that no one else does. But you can’t just start a hair-braiding business. You have to get a cosmetology license from the state, requiring you to spend thousands of hours learning to do things you’re never doing to do. (It’s a little like being told that you can’t go into business baking and selling pies unless you’ve cooked a few dozen racks of lamb.)
And since you’re probably not going to do that, untold customers will never benefit from your expertise, or the lower prices you would be able to charge.
Bad news for you, bad news for them. Good news for holders of the licenses, though!
Licensing works by creating a kind of corral. Customers (C) are only allowed to purchase goods and services inside the corral; and businesses (B) can only enter the corral to pursue those customers if they have the necessary licenses.
But as many businesses are beginning to realize, the corral is a trap. Because the government can demand that customers stay out of the corral in the name of ‘public health’, or for any other reason. That leaves the businesses still inside the corral — with no customers, and therefore no revenue. Still plenty of expenses, though!
To paraphrase Lyndon Johnson, a government with the power to chase away your competitors is also a government with the power to chase away your customers.
When you think about it, getting a license from the state is not unlike getting a favor from the Godfather. You get something you want. But he gets you.
The saddest part of what’s going on now is that, as a rule, licenses aren’t there because customers demanded them. Licenses are there because businesses demanded the protection they offer — or rather, the protection they used to offer. Which means that the damages now being suffered by businesses all over the state are largely self-inflicted.
Once again, Ben Franklin was correct: Those who trade liberty for security end up with neither.