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Simple justification: limit the number of people in these industries by creating an artificial barrier of entry. Which is a necessity for every industry not hav
by anovikov 11y ago
Simple justification: limit the number of people in these industries by creating an artificial barrier of entry. Which is a necessity for every industry not having a natural barrier of entry. Otherwise, things net nasty.
For a good example of what a non-scalable industry without a barrier of entry looks like, go to every freelance programmer marketplace. You can compete in such a marketplace in just one way: working dirt cheap AND scamming your clients. Not a win for either freelancer or a client. If you needed to pay $1000 a month for being on the freelancer site (imagine there is just one freelancer site out there, i.e. we are speaking of cost of a license to be a programmer), things will turn out much better instantly. Same works for barbers and real estate agents.
- saint_fiasco 11y agoMuch better for you, you mean. The reason you usually need to work dirt cheap to compete in those freelance programmer marketplaces is that you live in a place with a high cost of living.
- anovikov 11y agoSo you meant to say that with programming, the problem is complicated because it opens up the market from people from all over the world, and for industries that can't be outsourced, like barbershops, things aren't that bad?
- saint_fiasco 11y agoI guess I just don't see an open market with no barrier to entry as "bad". The possibility of outsourcing does force people to face this fact head-on, but even with barbershops barriers to entry mean higher prices for the end-consumer, higher operating costs for the barbers and unemployment for the almost-barbers who are excluded.