The harm caused by these laws runs deep.
A just-released Arizona State University study finds that states with the heaviest licensing burdens experienced higher levels of recidivism than their counterparts. This validates the common-sense intuition that limiting access to gainful employment only makes it harder on those trying to rebuild their lives.
What caused such a proliferation of unjust and harmful laws?
Decades of empirical research has found that the "degree of political influence" is "one of the most important factors in determining whether States regulate an occupation," according to the authors of the White House report. In other words, excessive licensing laws are often advanced by industry insiders — who directly profit from the ability to legally exclude potential competitors. This is cronyism at its worst. Government should be facilitating Nevadans' desire to earn an honest living, not restricting them so that the politically connected may profit.
Read on:
https://mises.org/blog/we-shouldnt-have-ask-states-permission-work