Gatekeepers Schmatekeepers

JL Wilson (http://independentcountry.blogspot.com/2007/03/high-price-of-distrust-and-fear.html) and Lew Rockwell (http://blog.lewrockwell.com/lewrw/archives/012462.html) both posted about gatekeepers today, albeit in different contexts. Wilson problematizes regulators and credentialing agencies as stifling creativity and limiting workers’ opportunities, and Rockwell defends Wikipedia against criticism about its editors’ lack of credentials.

I learned from a comedian last weekend that strippers in Texas must be vetted and licensed. She had had a DWI conviction and was ineligible for a license. In some places, you need a license to arrange flowers. These barriers to entry into such occupations serve no useful purpose. All licensing and credentialing bodies serve only to increase costs and rob folks of opportunities. Who thinks for a moment that a medical license is a guarantee of competence or that bar membership indicates a brilliant legal mind? These professions use licensing to maintain a monopoly for their guilds, not to protect consumers of medicine or legal advice. It would be one thing if membership in a professional association were voluntary. The association would have an incentive to keep as members only the most capable practitioners so that membership might be used as a marketing tool. As it stands now, membership does nothing for the consumer.

As for Wikipedia, I don’t care if the editors have degrees or are approved by the establishment. What do credentials matter as long as the information and knowledge provided are useful and fairly accurate? The establishment’s knock on Wikipedia is that anyone can contribute to it, even if they have not been through the establishment’s vetting process. The same goes for journalists’ disdain for bloggers. I find bloggers’ reporting useful and informative, and I have enough sense to know how credible any particular blog might be. It’s the “professional” journalists that fail to inform and who pump out endless streams of vacuity. The academy does not produce anything comparable to Wikipedia or otherwise do anything for me as a seeker of information or knowledge.