3 ms·
It is pretty much how it works with controllers, accountants, lawyers, professor, actuaries and notaries. The local varieties and rules may differ, but most of
by wjnc 3y ago
It is pretty much how it works with controllers, accountants, lawyers, professor, actuaries and notaries. The local varieties and rules may differ, but most of them have entry requirements and a professional organization that is allowed to create the exams, administer judgement over peers, hand out titles and withdraw titles. Where I’m from I can call myself an actuary, but not a lawyer, could’ve called myself professor when a child but not anymore since they’ve changed the rules.
These are for better or worse, guilds. Guilds give a certain air of quality and come at the cost of peers restricting markets thus raising prices, raising their income and lowering that of all that are obliged to purchase their services. I do like my investments in firms to come with an audited yearly report with some kind of guarantee against malfeasance. I like my notary to know the tax and heritage laws. But I still let my plumber, electrician, car mechanic and gardener do their work without guilds. (Although my car mechanic is part of a chain which offers some semblance of a guild.)
When I was younger Milton Freeman was my hero. He was very vocally against these guilds. The market would solve it all. I think it would, but it’s quite probable that the cost for guarantees and insurance would make the average consumer worse off than this strange remainder of the Middle Ages. This is institutional economics and sociology in action right in front of you.
- ghaff 3y agoSome of those are better examples than others. Someone who works as an accountant can probably call themselves an accountant--they just can't call themselves a CPA if they aren't one and may need a CPA to sign off on their work. A notary is someone with a stamp issued by the state. I'm not even sure what defines someone being a professor; they teach at a school of higher ed? There's certainly no legal requirement they have a PhD. But to your broader point, there's various licensing/guilds--some of which is stricter than others. For the most part, engineering is pretty loose which the exception of branches that deal a lot with regulators in particular, like civil engineering.