"Californy is the place you oughta be"– if you like burdensome occupational licensing regimes, that is

July 29, 2013 | By PACIFIC LEGAL FOUNDATION

Last week our friends at the Reason Foundation posted an article about occupational licensing in California.  The post reveals that the Golden State leads the nation in two troubling areas: (1) the number of occupations requiring an individual to obtain a state license; and (2) the burdensome requirements to obtain those licenses.  The author concludes that licensing in California is often “arbitrary, particularly onerous, and ultimately unnecessary.”  As the article states — and as Pacific Legal Foundation argues in many of its Economic Liberty Project cases — criminalizing economic activity can violate individuals’ fundamental right to earn a living.  And from a policy perspective, burdensome licensing regimes don’t equate to better service, they stifle entrepreneurship.