Not saying I agree, but here's a letter to the Economist defending interior design licensing (http://www.economist.com/opinion/displaystory.cfm?story_id=1...):

SIR – Lexington seems to have confused interior design with interior decoration. The interior-design profession is regulated because the designers provide services that carry substantial risk of harm if performed by unqualified people. They design spaces in a manner that can, among other things, reduce the likelihood of the spread of germs and disease in hospitals; increase productivity in commercial offices; and encourage learning in schools. Most important, they understand buildings from the users' perspective.

Interior designers are required to know about building codes, mechanical and electrical systems, fire suppression methods and sustainability measures. The “state-mandated test” that Lexington referred to was developed by our organisation and examines a designer's competence in these areas: it does not cover “fabulous taste”.

Jeffrey Kenney, Executive director, National Council for Interior Design Qualification, Washington, DC

I wonder if Alabama and Nevada (states with licensing laws) have better spaces than the other states. I'd guess no.

I don't see how giving advice on where to put your furniture or what paint color to use has anything to do with spreading germs. Especially if it would be legal to give that advice for free. As I understand it, in Iowa someone with a degree in Interior design can architect a building no taller than 3 stories. I'd agree that you should have to have some sort of credentials to do something like that, but to pick paint color? In the words of the John Stossel - Give me a break!

"Interior Decorators" like to call themselves "interior designers", but true "interior designers" do not like to be called "interior decorators". Technically, "interior design" is a subset/related to architecture. "Interior decorators" don't know much about building materials, and don't use Pantone colors. Interior designers know things like how wide walkways are supposed to be, how many square feet you need per-person (and how to arrange common areas to meet this legal (firecode) requirement), knows where exit signs should go, etc. There is also a significant amount of project management work that Interior designers do, in terms of managing the build out schedules and doing a lot of the technical grunt work in a build out.

This is prime evidence for the need of separation of state and education ( or state and credentialing). Any profession can lobby the state to increase the barriers of entry to that profession. Buying the service becomes more expensive and young people must spend far more time in school. A small gain to the current practitioners of the profession ends up being a huge cost to society as a whole.

State and economy is general.

Economic transactions with strangers (beyond simple cash-and-carry interactions) require trust, and most people look to the state as the guarantor-of-trust of last resort. Which is why states have been involved with the economy ever since Sumeria.

"Separation of state and economy" is about as likely as "separation of medicine and chemistry".

What a ridiculous argument. There are so many industries that have the potential to affect health and safety with no regulation. All common sense must now be regulated, for you own safety. Those without enough common sense will be excluded from anything.

I've kept the faith for so long. But I'm having a bad week. So someone please, please tell me that HN isn't turning into Reddit and that this completely irrelevant submission is just a bad dream, like the Star Wars prequels.

I wonder if this is a reaction to my comment that better credentialing and education was needed in the programming industry. It is needed, from the standpoint that lots of shoddy work gets done. I don't think there's a reason why this couldn't be done by the private sector, though.

I can deal with a handful of random stories but if some jackass starts posting stuff like: "Karl Rove eats deep fat fried Iraqi baby flesh" or "Bush pulled off 9/11 to win a $1 wager with Hitler who is secretly hiding in Argentina" than I'll be leaving HN just like I left reddit.

I could post a taser story. Would that jolt you awake from your bad dream, perhaps?

I would, but I'm not sure I'd be telling the truth.

I'm not so sure about the harm part, livefreeanddesign.org (the site for unlicensed designers) is giving me Post-Traumatic Stress due to its 1990's web design.

g you're right, I wouldn't turn to them for advice on design or architecture.

Some egregious certifications that are required in other states cover hair-dressers and florists. I remember reading about someone that wanted to open up an African hair braiding salon but was denied because she hadn't completed a year-long certification course on hair-dressing that had nothing to do with the African braiding style.

Yeah. Read The Machinery of Freedom by David Friedman for more on that sort of law.

That's a great book. I wish they had it online. It can't sell many copies.

I contacted David Friedman about that. He says that the publisher holds the copyright, not him. I actually think they would sell more copies if people were able to link to it online.