As of September 1, in the state of Texas anyone can offer plumbing services. As of that date, the Texas State Board of Plumbing Examiners, which regulated and licensed plumbers, will be flushed down the toilet.
Individuals will no longer have to travel to Austin to take the licensing exam or wait eight months to receive their license before they can offer plumbing services. Individuals will no longer have to meet the state’s laborious and expensive demands in order to receive permission to create and trade values.
Interestingly, many plumbers aren’t happy about their emancipation. They want to be licensed and regulated by the state, which means, they want politicians and bureaucrats dictating how they operate their business. One plumber claims that the demise of regulation “will lead to more unqualified workers entering the workforce.” He went on to say, “We’re going to put the safety of the homeowners and the public of Texas in jeopardy.”
Unqualified by whose standard?
There are many plumbing jobs that are relatively easy to master. Without any training or licensing, I have changed toilets, faucets, and supply lines. I have unclogged sinks and drain lines. And I have done various other plumbing jobs on my rental homes. But I know my limits. I have a plumber who gets a lot of business from me doing things that I am not qualified to do.
However, I am qualified to do some of the simpler plumbing tasks. If I decided to offer a service that installed faucets, replaced fill valves in toilets, and unclogged kitchen drains, I would be perfectly qualified to offer that service. And I would probably offer that service for less than a full service plumber.
As an example, my plumber once charge me $150 to replace a fill valve in a toilet. I can do the task in less than 15 minutes and the part costs about $10. If I charged $100 for the service, the customer would save 33 percent.
But according to the plumber quoted above, I should be prohibited from offering such a service. I should be trained and qualified in every plumbing task, and until I can proved my competency in all of those tasks, I should be prohibited from offering even the simplest services. Why?
The fact is, occupational licensing is a barrier to entry. Licensing requires an individual to have a broad range of skills and knowledge before he can enter a profession. He must know about, and be able to deal with, virtually every issue that might arise. In many professions, such as plumbing, it allows for little specialization.
If an individual judges himself to be competent to offer a service, he has a moral right to do so. If a consumer judges him competent to provide that service, the consumer has a moral right to hire him. But licensing renders the judgment of both producer and consumer irrelevant. The licensing board will make that decision for them.
If plumbers are concerned about the consequences of their emancipation, if they fear that unqualified individuals will enter their profession, then they should do what any respectable and responsible business does. They should differentiate themselves. They should offer their potential clients an explanation why their company offers a better value.
If a company requires government coercion to succeed, one must question the values it offers. If a company demands that the government limit the number of competitors, one must wonder how that benefits the public. In truth, it doesn’t benefit the public. It only benefits the bureaucrats who oversee the scheme, and the incumbents who can charge inflated prices.