6 ms·

New York can go fuck itself. It's insulting to the people that in a time of economic turmoil the politicians are still taking big fat campaign checks from the h

New York can go fuck itself. It's insulting to the people that in a time of economic turmoil the politicians are still taking big fat campaign checks from the hoteliers and passing arbitrary bullshit laws that dick people over who are trying to make ends meet. Who the fuck do they think are to even suggest they can come into my home and tell me how "sanitary" it is? Sorry for the rant, but this is industry after industry, entrepreneurs like AirBNB try to create efficiency and wealth and the establishment comes along and buys off politicians to eliminate the competition. Democrats hate corporations, Republicans hate the government. Or maybe they just pit us against each other while they all laugh their way to the bank.

nopassrecover 16y ago
If someone gets sick because your last airbnb "customer" contaminated a room or because you didn't realise you served some out of date chicken you haven't signed any legal waiver to my knowledge.
patio11 16y ago
If you feel strongly about this, you might want to read Cato regarding licensing for e.g. cosmetologists and taxi drivers. It is the same story -- pretexts about the public safety justify anti-competition laws, whose effects are felt mostly by poor would-be entrepreneurs and the communities who they can't legally service.
- carbocation 16y ago
  The taxi thing seems totally like a pretext, but cosmetologists engage in a lot of quasi-medical stuff that seems reasonable to regulate. Perhaps I'm mostly thinking of spas and their ilk, and honestly I'm probably mostly just thinking about the rise in community-acquired MRSA (which, to be fair, has not been shown to be driven by cosmetological practices at this point).
  - houseabsolute 16y ago
    Sometimes it might be better to wait and see if a problem arises rather than preemptively legislating it in a way that might do far more harm than the anticipated problem.
    - carbocation 16y ago
      Absolutely! Hence my strong agreement on taxis and my rambling uncertainty about cosmetologists.
      - houseabsolute 16y ago
        I thought you felt that way, but I wanted to make it explicit for the readers because there was some ambiguity. :)
        carbocation 16y ago
        Cheers; thank you for nudging me to express myself more clearly!
    - gojomo 16y ago
      Indeed. And not only is it good to wait until problems occur, but it is also good even after a problem occurs to wait to see how businesses and their customers adjust, rather than assume that every new problem needs a regulatory solution. Once a problem occurs, and gets enough media coverage to drive regulation, it has also achieved enough awareness to become a point of marketing/competition/consumer-activism. That might be enough to control the risk, even without official state inspectors/licensors/bureaucrats. Especially in the modern era of costless sharing/archiving/finding of customer reviews and discussion.
    - vermontdevil 16y ago
      The state government is using this 'sanitary' issue as a pretext to intervene on behalf of the hotel industry that they have beholden themselves to.
  - 16y ago
- tomjen3 16y ago
  One could make an argument for both of those, but I have no idea how it came to be that _florists_ have to be licensed in Florida. Death to lobbyists.
  - sliverstorm 16y ago
    Perhaps it was for the same reasons as why various countries have laws about what kind of alcohol can be exported under what name?
    - roel_v 16y ago
      Are you referring to Champagne that can only be called from Champagne if it's from that area? Because it's different from the florist issue. The EU Protected Designation of Origin system was meant mostly to let local producers protect the local and artisan character of traditional products. Florists probably argued the same thing that most professions that try to round the circle of the guild argue: the profession required special knowledge and for the sake of consumer protection we need to let only vetted people into the group. It's the same argument doctors use - yet I hardly ever meet anyone who questions the need for certification by a professional group or government of the medical profession (for the record I oppose such barriers to entry and advocate putting more responsibility with the consumer).
      - sliverstorm 16y ago
        I was more specifically thinking of the requirements (depending on the country) for certain types of whiskey, beer, and IIRC some grain alcohols. I know the French do the same thing, but never delved into it because wines and cognac and brandy seem to be worlds more complicated.
        roel_v 16y ago
        Yeah probably the same mechanism, it works and is administered on the EU level. It's used for many spirits, wines and agricultural products in the EU. An area close to where I'm from in Belgium even has a type of pie protected that way.
- crystalis 16y ago
  Interior design has even taken up this torch! "Every decision an interior designer makes in one way or another affects the health, safety and welfare of the public. Those decisions include specifying furniture, fabrics and carpeting that comply with fire codes and space planning that provides proper means of egress. Additionally, interior designers deal with accessibility issues, ergonomics, lighting, acoustics and design solutions for those with special needs." His prognosis for the general situation doesn't look good: "My colleagues tell me that it would just seem silly to make a fuss over this; it is just not a serious topic. Yes we can't take seriously the idea of legally requiring a college degree to suggest where pillows go, but we also can't take seriously an economist who would focus on such a trivial and obvious point. [...] But if we cannot actually apply that knowledge effectively to obvious cases, what is the point exactly?" http://robinhanson.typepad.com/overcomingbias/2009/04/silly-consensus.html http://robinhanson.typepad.com/overcomingbias/2009/04/silly-...
  - cabalamat 16y ago
    Indeed. Requiring a permit to do interior design is clearly a way of gouging the public, and societies need to have robust means to prevent it.
  - jimbobimbo 16y ago
    I just recently had a conversation with a friend who does interior design professionally (not licensed though). At first my reaction was exactly - "that's stupid to require license for THAT". However, she made a great point - people confuse interior DECORATORS and interior DESIGNERS. You hire decorators to make certain taste decisions, but designer to design interior from ground up. Designer will make choice whether to put certain important things like, say, lights. I bet, you'd better have someone who understands how much lights your staircase must have.
JohnnyBrown 16y ago
Exactly the rant I intended to write. Seeing that attitude presented as anything other than pure self-interest makes me sick.
cromulent 16y ago
When politicians say they are "pro-business" many people hear "pro free market" and vote accordingly. They of course really mean "pro-some-specific-businesses-who-lobbied-or-contributed".

nopassrecover 16y ago

If someone gets sick because your last airbnb "customer" contaminated a room or because you didn't realise you served some out of date chicken you haven't signed any legal waiver to my knowledge.

patio11 16y ago

If you feel strongly about this, you might want to read Cato regarding licensing for e.g. cosmetologists and taxi drivers. It is the same story -- pretexts about the public safety justify anti-competition laws, whose effects are felt mostly by poor would-be entrepreneurs and the communities who they can't legally service.

carbocation 16y ago
The taxi thing seems totally like a pretext, but cosmetologists engage in a lot of quasi-medical stuff that seems reasonable to regulate. Perhaps I'm mostly thinking of spas and their ilk, and honestly I'm probably mostly just thinking about the rise in community-acquired MRSA (which, to be fair, has not been shown to be driven by cosmetological practices at this point).
- houseabsolute 16y ago
  Sometimes it might be better to wait and see if a problem arises rather than preemptively legislating it in a way that might do far more harm than the anticipated problem.
  - carbocation 16y ago
    Absolutely! Hence my strong agreement on taxis and my rambling uncertainty about cosmetologists.
    - houseabsolute 16y ago
      I thought you felt that way, but I wanted to make it explicit for the readers because there was some ambiguity. :)
      - carbocation 16y ago
        Cheers; thank you for nudging me to express myself more clearly!
  - gojomo 16y ago
    Indeed. And not only is it good to wait until problems occur, but it is also good even after a problem occurs to wait to see how businesses and their customers adjust, rather than assume that every new problem needs a regulatory solution. Once a problem occurs, and gets enough media coverage to drive regulation, it has also achieved enough awareness to become a point of marketing/competition/consumer-activism. That might be enough to control the risk, even without official state inspectors/licensors/bureaucrats. Especially in the modern era of costless sharing/archiving/finding of customer reviews and discussion.
  - vermontdevil 16y ago
    The state government is using this 'sanitary' issue as a pretext to intervene on behalf of the hotel industry that they have beholden themselves to.
- 16y ago
tomjen3 16y ago
One could make an argument for both of those, but I have no idea how it came to be that _florists_ have to be licensed in Florida. Death to lobbyists.
- sliverstorm 16y ago
  Perhaps it was for the same reasons as why various countries have laws about what kind of alcohol can be exported under what name?
  - roel_v 16y ago
    Are you referring to Champagne that can only be called from Champagne if it's from that area? Because it's different from the florist issue. The EU Protected Designation of Origin system was meant mostly to let local producers protect the local and artisan character of traditional products. Florists probably argued the same thing that most professions that try to round the circle of the guild argue: the profession required special knowledge and for the sake of consumer protection we need to let only vetted people into the group. It's the same argument doctors use - yet I hardly ever meet anyone who questions the need for certification by a professional group or government of the medical profession (for the record I oppose such barriers to entry and advocate putting more responsibility with the consumer).
    - sliverstorm 16y ago
      I was more specifically thinking of the requirements (depending on the country) for certain types of whiskey, beer, and IIRC some grain alcohols. I know the French do the same thing, but never delved into it because wines and cognac and brandy seem to be worlds more complicated.
      - roel_v 16y ago
        Yeah probably the same mechanism, it works and is administered on the EU level. It's used for many spirits, wines and agricultural products in the EU. An area close to where I'm from in Belgium even has a type of pie protected that way.
crystalis 16y ago
Interior design has even taken up this torch! "Every decision an interior designer makes in one way or another affects the health, safety and welfare of the public. Those decisions include specifying furniture, fabrics and carpeting that comply with fire codes and space planning that provides proper means of egress. Additionally, interior designers deal with accessibility issues, ergonomics, lighting, acoustics and design solutions for those with special needs." His prognosis for the general situation doesn't look good: "My colleagues tell me that it would just seem silly to make a fuss over this; it is just not a serious topic. Yes we can't take seriously the idea of legally requiring a college degree to suggest where pillows go, but we also can't take seriously an economist who would focus on such a trivial and obvious point. [...] But if we cannot actually apply that knowledge effectively to obvious cases, what is the point exactly?" http://robinhanson.typepad.com/overcomingbias/2009/04/silly-consensus.html http://robinhanson.typepad.com/overcomingbias/2009/04/silly-...
- cabalamat 16y ago
  Indeed. Requiring a permit to do interior design is clearly a way of gouging the public, and societies need to have robust means to prevent it.
- jimbobimbo 16y ago
  I just recently had a conversation with a friend who does interior design professionally (not licensed though). At first my reaction was exactly - "that's stupid to require license for THAT". However, she made a great point - people confuse interior DECORATORS and interior DESIGNERS. You hire decorators to make certain taste decisions, but designer to design interior from ground up. Designer will make choice whether to put certain important things like, say, lights. I bet, you'd better have someone who understands how much lights your staircase must have.

JohnnyBrown 16y ago

Exactly the rant I intended to write. Seeing that attitude presented as anything other than pure self-interest makes me sick.

cromulent 16y ago

When politicians say they are "pro-business" many people hear "pro free market" and vote accordingly. They of course really mean "pro-some-specific-businesses-who-lobbied-or-contributed".