“This to me means the right of every citizen to pursue that particular vocational activity which he wishes to follow, unregimented, untrammelled, uncontrolled, subject to the right of every other citizen to have the same privilege.”
– J. Reuben Clark Jr.
“There is no justification for taking away individuals’ freedom in the guise of public safety.”
– Thomas Jefferson
“[Trade licensing] almost inevitably becomes a tool in the hands of a special producer group to maintain a monopoly position at the expense of the rest of the public. There is no way to avoid this result.”
– Milton Friedman
Defending Contract Rights from Licensing Laws
As an Orem city councilor, I have a duty to defend your God-given (or natural) rights to contract. If you want to buy or sell or give or receive, including by practicing your chosen profession, then you shouldn’t need political permission. Police may justly intervene only when one person’s behavior is violating another person’s rights, not otherwise.
And this is why I want to repeal occupational licensure laws, which treat our innate God-given rights like negotiable state-granted privileges. Such regulations are both needless and counterproductive, illicitly profiting special interests by unjustly stifling both competitors and innovations, and needlessly raising costs without improving quality.
Those who want to raise standards should forgo political activism for economic activism like expert certifications, ratings, customer reviews, investigative news, persuasive letters, public-sidewalk protests, boycotts, etc. But, although I oppose regulatory law, I support criminal law to prosecute genuine rights-violations like fraud or injury.
On Mobile Businesses
Orem currently prohibits any mobile vendors except for food trucks—but there’s nothing wrong with either buying or selling from a van, including cutting hair, painting nails, sewing clothes, shining shoes, repairing bicycles, copying keys, cleaning homes, repairing tech, tutoring students, grooming pets, removing junk, et cetera. Let’s free our city’s market to thrive.
David for Liberty 