Via Arnold Kling and Tyler Cowen and the Web site vice.com comes warning of what Mr. Kling calls "really, really not a good idea" and what I would go even further and call a really bad idea: occupational licensing requirements for software engineers. From the Vice article:
Frailey suggests that software engineers should be required to demonstrate a certain level of expertise before offering their services to the public, just like professionals in disciplines like medicine and law.
"Anybody can claim to be a heart surgeon but how do you know whether they're any good?" Frailey said. "You start by saying, 'Do you have a medical license?'"
Every state has a licensing board, which grants certification in areas that range from education to medicine and beyond. Last year, 30 states included software engineering on a list of professions that require practitioners to pass state licensing exams in order to work on projects that could affect public safety. ...Laplante said he expects all 50 states to require software engineering licenses within the next decade, and possibly much sooner.
It seems to me the direction we should be going in on occupational licensing is rolling back unnecessary requirements, not piling new ones on an area, software development, that has been a bright spot in the economy.
