This is the Cato Daily Podcast for Thursday, May 11th,

2023.

I'm Caleb Brown.

American employment is increasingly subject to government permission

in the form of occupational licensing. Many states are making headway,

making it easier for the average American

to seize opportunity and serve their fellows

without a government permission slip.

I spoke with Steve Slavinsky without a government permission slip.

I spoke with Steve Slavinsky, the Pacific Legal Foundation, and Stephen Done, a Republican

State Representative in Kentucky, about opportunities to cut the red tape that is occupational licensing.

We have two steves here, so just for the purposes of taxonomy for the rest of this discussion,

Steve Slavinsky, you're Steve, Stephen Done, you are Stephen for the purposes of this discussion.

So to you, Steve Slavinsky, you know, occupational has has become more prominent over the past

decade or so the outgoing Obama administration made reference to licensing reform as a serious issue that that states ought to be taking

seriously. That was several years ago. Where do things stand right now? Have we seen big changes in the degree to which states impose

licensing requirements on people who just want to work?

So not as much as you would like to have happen.

Certainly, especially since there's a lot of understanding of the issue.

In fact, this is one of those policy areas where we know what the problems are and

we actually even know what the solutions are but getting those

solutions across the finish line legislatively actually is quite difficult some of the time.

...