The Obama administration seems to care about occupational licensing

[Pointedstick]

Pleasantly surprised!

https://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2016/06 ... al-license

In 2015, over 22 percent of U.S. workers held an occupational license at the State, Federal, or local level, while around 26 percent held a license or a certificate. While licensing and certification seek to ensure that workers have the necessary qualifications, especially for occupations impacting consumer safety and well-being, overly-broad application of licensing requirements can create costly and unnecessary barriers to entering a profession. Licensing can lead to higher wages for those able to obtain a license, but can also lead to inefficiency and unfairness, including reducing employment opportunities and depressing wages for excluded workers, reducing workers’ mobility across State lines, and increasing costs for consumers. To address these challenges, the Administration is collaborating with States to encourage reforms that reduce licensing burdens for workers, while continuing to safeguard the well-being of the public, in line with best practices for licensing.

[Libertarian666]

Pleasantly surprised!

https://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2016/06 ... al-license

In 2015, over 22 percent of U.S. workers held an occupational license at the State, Federal, or local level, while around 26 percent held a license or a certificate. While licensing and certification seek to ensure that workers have the necessary qualifications, especially for occupations impacting consumer safety and well-being, overly-broad application of licensing requirements can create costly and unnecessary barriers to entering a profession. Licensing can lead to higher wages for those able to obtain a license, but can also lead to inefficiency and unfairness, including reducing employment opportunities and depressing wages for excluded workers, reducing workers’ mobility across State lines, and increasing costs for consumers. To address these challenges, the Administration is collaborating with States to encourage reforms that reduce licensing burdens for workers, while continuing to safeguard the well-being of the public, in line with best practices for licensing.

Well, I can report that my professional licensing experience is that it hasn't increased my income.
Or to be more exact, I have earned a total of $0 with my licenses so far.

[goodasgold]

A few lifetimes ago, I was a licensed real estate agent. Getting the license required taking a test, very little of which had anything whatsoever to do with laws, contracts, math or ethical questions related to buying and selling real estate.

The licensing test was nothing more than a [very successful] effort by the real estate industry to exclude as many people as possible from competing in the field.

And for the life of me, I can't understand why there is so much emphasis in this country on obtaining useless B.A. degrees. What good does it do, except enable a vast army of college employees to earn a living?

IMHO what this country needs is less licensing and fewer irrelevant college degrees and more good vocational education at moderate prices.

[Pointedstick]

Fewer paper credentials and more real skills, in other words. What a concept.

[MachineGhost]

Fewer paper credentials and more real skills, in other words. What a concept.

Real skills to repair the robot that replaced 99% of the other skills?

[Pointedstick]

Robots will replace anything that operates on the principle of mass production, whether that's cars, computers, or fast food. But robots will never replace humans in most jobs that cannot easily be routinized. When do you expect to see a robot replacing a water heater, running a 7/11 franchise, repairing watches, or designing custom part? Don't make me laugh.

[l82start]

replacing a water heater, fixing plumbing etc. is not going to happen till the buildings the equipment is in is designed in a way that makes it possible.. so those jobs are safe as long as their are old buildings, running a 7/11 franchise, repairing watches, or designing custom part, are a lot easter to envision as being automated...

[MachineGhost]

Robots will replace anything that operates on the principle of mass production, whether that's cars, computers, or fast food. But robots will never replace humans in most jobs that cannot easily be routinized. When do you expect to see a robot replacing a water heater, running a 7/11 franchise, repairing watches, or designing custom part? Don't make me laugh.

Ohhhhhhhhh, that's gonna come back to haunt you just like that silly statement from Bill Gates about 64KB of RAM was more than enough for anybody!

See this: http://www.gyroscopicinvesting.com/foru ... 26#p150826

[Kriegsspiel]

replacing a water heater, fixing plumbing etc. is not going to happen till the buildings the equipment is in is designed in a way that makes it possible.. so those jobs are safe as long as their are old buildings, running a 7/11 franchise, repairing watches, or designing custom part, are a lot easter to envision as being automated...

Charles Hugh Smith used that very same example in his book A Radically Beneficial World. I think Marshall Brain would contend that the programming is easy; the visual recognition is the hard part.

"[a research scientist] and I were discussing automation, and jokingly I said that my ability to fix a kitchen faucet is still valuable because programming a robot to perform the troubleshooting, reach under the sink to loosen the fastening nut, and so on would be costly and so it's still cheaper to pay a human to do this repair.

He observed that this would only be true until the faucet was designed specifically to be easily repaired by a robot.

In other words, the architect who designs a building so it is not only well-designed but easy for robots to build will create the most value."

Fodder for your blog's house series huh?

[Pointedstick]

Yes, in fact, I have one in the works on that subject already. Edit: here it is: http://hommelscitadel.com/will-robots-t ... -the-jobs/

And the thing is, anything designed to be easily replaceable by a robot is likely to be equally as easily replaceable by a human. Making something automatable generally entails breaking it down into actions that are as simple, discrete, and predictable as possible. Once you've done that, the only advantages that robots bring to the table are speed and strength, which won't really apply to home repairs like they do for heavy industry and mass production.

[MachineGhost]

And the thing is, anything designed to be easily replaceable by a robot is likely to be equally as easily replaceable by a human. Making something automatable generally entails breaking it down into actions that are as simple, discrete, and predictable as possible. Once you've done that, the only advantages that robots bring to the table are speed and strength, which won't really apply to home repairs like they do for heavy industry and mass production.

And knowledge. Most people don't know jack shit about home repairs/improvement and I don't see it getting any better in the future. It's just not an interesting subject compared to leading an "active adult" lifestyle of playing golf, tennis and whatever the hell else boring social signaling stuff those old people do in master-planned communities. The Internetz and smartphone is making us all lazier and innate stupid and robots are an idea whose time has come to fix that new problem.

[Pointedstick]

And the thing is, anything designed to be easily replaceable by a robot is likely to be equally as easily replaceable by a human. Making something automatable generally entails breaking it down into actions that are as simple, discrete, and predictable as possible. Once you've done that, the only advantages that robots bring to the table are speed and strength, which won't really apply to home repairs like they do for heavy industry and mass production.

And knowledge. Most people don't know jack shit about home repairs/improvement and I don't see it getting any better in the future. It's just not an interesting subject compared to leading an "active adult" lifestyle of playing golf, tennis and whatever the hell else boring social signaling stuff those old people do in master-planned communities. The Internetz and smartphone is making us all lazier and innate stupid and robots are an idea whose time has come to fix that new problem.

You've been living in California too long my friend! People aren't so vapid and useless everywhere. In my middle-class neighborhood full of retired people, everyone does their own home improvement or shops it out to a more-skilled neighbor. Their vice is owning like five cars.

[MachineGhost]

You've been living in California too long my friend! People aren't so valid and useless everywhere. In my middle-class neighborhood full of retired people, everyone does their own home improvement or shops it out to a more-skilled neighbor. Their vice is owning like five cars.

Well the good news is the unthinkable finally happened and I can start looking for a new place to live. I expect it will take some time.

[l82start]

there is a shrinking generational window for the "jack of all trades" "universally useful man" in between the old folks who used to be competent generalists, but got to old or cant be bothered anymore/can afford to pay to get things done, and the younger generation who not only don't seem to have a clue how anything works or goes together, but don't even seem to care to learn.... the exception may be farm country where young men can still do or fix anything they set there mind to, but i doubt the demographics are very good even there...

[Pointedstick]

there is a shrinking generational window for the "jack of all trades" "universally useful man" in between the old folks who used to be competent generalists, but got to old or cant be bothered anymore/can afford to pay to get things done, and the younger generation who not only don't seem to have a clue how anything works or goes together, but don't even seem to care to learn.... the exception may be farm country where young men can still do or fix anything they set there mind to, but i doubt the demographics are very good even there...

The tide may shift quicker than we think. Specialists are fragile and their chronic nervousness reveals it. A generation raised as specialists may produce children who (like all children after all) see the folly of their parents and go in the opposite direction, because the specialist way of life is fundamentally unappealing from the outside. You start your career late and delay family formation, go deep into debt to get there, spend your working life tied to big institutions that can push you around because of an oversupply of specialists, and can only realistically exercise your specialty in a small handful of hyper-expensive metro areas. Despite your fancy degrees and high income, you are completely at the mercy of others. An Atlantic article that we discussed a few months back is pretty much all about this phenomenon: http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/arc ... me/476415/