because licensure is also a way to guarantee quality standards, safety and provide training and representation for members of an industry. They're reputational

because licensure is also a way to guarantee quality standards, safety and provide training and representation for members of an industry. They're reputational tools. They tend to incentivize the creation of industry bodies that see that employers are collectively represented, fairly compensated and that hucksters are kept out. When people start cutting hair in their home they're not going to run fabulous businesses, they're going to look for alternatives to accredit themselves because that signal is valuable, it's how people end up at lambda school or online rating platforms. The 'ed-tech' sector that is emerging around unregulated professions is an example of what happens if you don't have licenses. You have a vulture-like companies that offer people pseudo-qualifications without representation or any real chance to judge the standards of their education.