016 Top Priority Podcast | Occupational Licensing

Show: 016 Top Priority Podcast | Occupational Licensing  

Date Recorded: December 16, 2019

Host: Duane Lester, Manager of Issue Education, Grassroots Leadership Academy 

Guests: Erica Jedynak, Director of Employment Initiatives, Stand Together 

Austen Bannan Senior Policy Analyst of Employment Policy, Americans for Prosperity

Show Notes & Timestamps

• What is Occupational Licensing and why is it an issue on which our Stand Together Community engages? min [4:15]
• How some occupational licenses actually prop-up special interests and create a two-tired society. min [9:08]
• How our Community views Occupational Licensing through the lens of the first mutually-reinforcing principle—Equal Rights. min [17:20]
• What are viable alternatives to Occupational Licenses to keep people safe? min [23:25]
• How our Community views Occupational Licensing through the lens of the second mutually-reinforcing principle—Mutual Benefit. min [29:20]
• How Occupational Licensing props up cronyism and what is cronyism? min [41:47] 
• How our Community views Occupational Licensing through the lens of the third mutually-reinforcing principle—Openness. min [42:27]
• Certificate of Need keeping people from accessing quality, affordable health care. min [48:08]
• How Government uses Occupational Licensing against people—including doing math without a license. min [49:50]
• How our Community views Occupational Licensing through the lens of the fourth mutually-reinforcing principle—Self-Actualization. min [53:20]

**Additional Resource**

• Reclaiming the American Dream: The Role of Private Individuals and Voluntary Associations by Richard Cornuelle
• “There are no solutions. There are only trade-offs.” —Thomas Sowell, A Conflict of Visions: Ideological Origins of Political Struggles
• District Works is a coalition of small business owners, nonprofits, and community members striving to make it cheaper, faster, and simpler to start a business in D.C.

What is Top Priority | Ideas for Human Flourishing?

We have a deep belief in people and promote ideas of human flourishing.

Top Priority is a collection of interactive, learning-oriented conversations on how the Stand Together Community engages with and advocates for solutions through the lens of our Community Vision: We transform society by breaking the internal and external barriers that prevent people from realizing their potential, enabling all people to improve their lives and find fulfillment by helping others do the same.

The Stand Together Community Vision is guided by four, mutually reinforcing principles: Equal Rights | Mutual Benefit | Openness | Self-Actualization

Explore the free and civil society through the lens of each of these four mutually reinforcing principles and stand together to help every person rise.

Top Priority is a production of the Americans for Prosperity Foundation's Grassroots Leadership Academy, where we make Human Flourishing a top priority.