Your Roof and Teeth Repair–Licensing
In all state’s and most countries, no matter what the form of government, the Department of Business and Professional Regulation misuse Licensing and Education to increase prices by eliminating competition and thus create a TESTOCRACY, not a Meritocracy-Education as a Weapon!!!!!!
Before 1982, because of the abundant supply of roofers, one could have asphalt shingles, in Florida, put on their roof for 8 cents per square foot. In Texas, which has no roofer licensing, the current price is l0 cents per square foot and to take off and install new standard shingles, if you include labor and materials the price is 76 cents per square foot. Without licensing in Florida you would be paying 76 cents per square foot instead of the $1.25 to $2.55 that people now are currently paying the licensed roofers. This means, that each person with a 2000 sq. foot roof area, is being overcharged by $980.00 to $3520.00 dollars for the roofing job on their house because of licensing. (We have licensing under Governor Jeb Bush but licensing of roofers did not exist under Texas’s Governor George Bush, and the Texas legislature, and still does not exist). Most trades and professions collude with various state and universities to increase their prices by limiting their competition and requiring licenses with irrelevant education, time and experience requirement. Is Florida roofing licensing, and your states licensing law illegal? (Remember, it takes only 2 hours to learn asphalt shingle roofing as one-fifth of the homeowners have proved by reading the shingle package and installing their own shingles). Read the law and decide.
Florida Law says: 455.201 Professions and occupations regulated by department; legislative intent; requirements. –(1) It is the intent of the Legislature that persons desiring to engage in any lawful profession regulated by the department shall be entitled to do so as a matter of right if otherwise qualified. (2) The Legislature further believes that such professions shall be regulated only for the preservation of the health, safety, and welfare of the public under the police powers of the state. Such professions shall be regulated when: (a) Their unregulated practice can harm or endanger the health, safety, and welfare of the public, and when the potential for such harm is recognizable and clearly outweighs any anticompetitive impact which may result from regulation. (b) The public is not effectively protected by other means, including, but not limited to, other state statutes, local ordinances, or federal legislation. (c) Less restrictive means of regulation are not available.(4)(a) Neither the department nor any board may create unreasonably restrictive and extraordinary standards that deter qualified persons from entering the various professions. Neither the department nor any board may take any action that tends to create or maintain an economic condition that unreasonably restricts competition, except as specifically provided by law. A roofer started roofing Licensing. Why Licensing? Roofers wanted to make more money, and observed that doctors, dentists, lawyers, and plumbers kept out their competition and their prices high by requiring licenses. So, the roofers decided to get the states help in eliminating their competition. The Roofers told the public, as did the doctors, dentists, lawyers and plumbers, in all states, “We want to protect you!!! But, by creating a shortage, the states and universities have caused you to pay 200% to 400% and more for your roof repair and other trade and professional services?
How do the states create a shortage and increase your costs for most licensed services? 1. Statistics are taken on each test question to determine the fail rate so that the states can guarantee that only the percent they want to pass will pass a test in any trade or profession. 2. For example in roofing, four fifths of the roofs are asphalt shingle roofs so most roofers have experience only on asphalt shingle roofs and only want to do asphalt shingle roofs, but they are asked question on all types instead of questions only on the type of roofing they want to do and thus fail the test. 3. Only licensed roofers that have worked for a roofer for 4 years and passed this difficult, expensive test, can sign a contract with you, but many roofers never roof for 4 years and thus do not meet the 4-year requirement to take the test (This rule eliminates the competition from college students who need the money for their education and the competition from minimum wage workers). 4. Many roofers, that roof well, do no have the reading and math skills that are required to pass this expensive test or are not willing to study for long hours, after a hard days work, to pass this test that does not test practical skill but only reading and math skills. 5. When the state reduces the supply of roofers or any service the price dramatically increases. 6. Because of the hurricanes in Florida the demand for roofers varies greatly and the supply cannot adjust, because of licensing, and the 4-year requirement, to the varied demand and thus you are additionally ripped off during hurricanes. Another example in Massachusetts, if you wish to be a painter, you must work for someone for 4 years because, supposedly, you cannot learn to work on ladders and other staging equipment in less than 4 years when you actually could learn all this in a day, I know because, in my youth, I was a steeple-jack.
So, Why a test? It is the most effective way of eliminating competition. If you don’t allow blacks to work you eliminate only l3% of the competition, if you don’t allow women to work you do better in that you eliminate 50% of the competition but if you eliminate by test you can cut out any percent of the competition you wish. For example, if you wish to eliminate 97.5% of the population from competing with you, just require reading and learning skills that a person with a 130 IQ has. If you want to eliminate Albert Einstein you can do so by requiring a 161 IQ. He allegedly had a 160 IQ. If you want to knock out 25% of the people who take your test, take statistics on each question and only include a mix of questions that you have determined 25% will fail to answer. I have been told the states do this.
Does licensing protect you? Usually not!!!!!! The public was already protected in Florida, before and after licensing in that all roof jobs were and are required to be inspected by County Inspectors, (licensed roofers often fail these inspections). You are required to sign a contract with a licensed roofer, but the licensed roofer can sub-out your roof job to anybody even if the sub has never worked on a roof. So, a licensed roofer is frequently not doing your roof. These subcontractors usually get 20 cents in Texas and 35 to 55 cents a square foot in Florida to tear off and put on the shingles. Many of these subs do not speak English, but can do roofing well, as most people can. The principles of asphalt shingling can be learned in two hours, as millions of homeowners have proved by reading the instructions on the shingle package, doing their roof and having their roof approved by the County Inspectors. The owners of their own house do one fifth or the roofing jobs. I have had good roof jobs done by roofers that could not even read. If a roofer has no math skills he/she can hire someone to do the estimate or his wife can, as my roofer did.
What’s the solution to the high prices caused by licensing? Honest, compassionate, intelligent legislatures and, in the case of roofing, if you allow anyone to do roofing new roofers would flock in to cheaply do your roof. If all roofers were required to be bonded with a $5000.00 bond and permits were not issued to any roofer who has failed to pass his last inspection until he corrects her/his mistakes, the public would be protected, competition would not be limited, and you would get a good job, at a reasonable price, or your part of the $5000.00 so that you could have someone else do your job. I ask that Governor Jeb Bush and all governors and state legislatures do as Governor George Bush, and the Texas legislature did and allow roofer to work without licenses and thus stop this illegal, immoral, anti-competitive licensing and instead require each contractor to be bonded, as suggested above.
Incidentally, shingles are rated in wind speed with the 110 mph shingles costing about 21 cents more, per square foot, than the 60 mph shingles. Some insurance companies give discounts on shingles with higher fire and wind speed ratings. The various manufacturers of shingles have web sites that explain many things. The lowest quotes I have gotten were when a quote was asked, for labor only, on shingles that the supplier would already have stocked for you on a house.
A SECOND EXAMPLE OF A TESTOCRACY (A group of people that exist, not because of high character, superior ability, or the good services they provide in a give occupation, but because they are good at passing tests.)
In 1884 dentists, some as young as sixteen, were thought of as tradesmen and prices were cheap. The dentists wanted to be thought of as doctors and wanted more status, less competition and higher wages so they started licensing their trade, increasing schooling from some high school, to some college, to some medical school to lots of schooling as required today. (Doctors are not required to go to college in India and some other countries, but they must go to medical school) The dentists realized that each year they kept someone in school it was one more year they are not competing and thus the dentist could charge higher prices and have more status, because of the longer time in school. The schools, teachers and states liked that because it meant more money, power and jobs for them.
Everyone has been told: “Education is good. You need it.” And you do! But, please explore with me the answer to the question: Can education be used as a weapon? Can a dentist use education to get more status and more of your money by keeping the competition in school and out of business? Let us say that you are a dentist and planning your strategy. You want to earn more money and status, and you notice how doctors keep their competition out so you do the same, which is:1. Make students go to college as long as you can get away with. (By that move alone 66% of whites and 83% of blacks are cut out from competing and lowering your prices as only these percentages graduate from college.)2. Require courses that many will have difficulty with (and frequently have nothing to do with teeth).3. Give a course in political manipulation so your dentist knows how to deal with the government to get what they want. Such courses are given.4. Make the school expensive so many competitors cannot afford it.5. Limit the number of students that can get into school by controlling the number of new schools that can be built.6. Limit the number of students by limiting the enrollment of students. 7. Limit the number of students that can get in by requiring reading, math and memory skills above what is really required or even helpful. 8. Make students go to medical school as long as you can get away with.9. Make the dentist learn all areas of dentistry instead of only the one area he/she wants to practice in.10. When the dentist has graduated make him/her take a test, in each state, and in all areas of dentistry instead of the one area he/she wants.11. Don’t let the dentist that is licensed in one state, practice in another unless he/she passed another test, usually after they have forgotten much of the material. (We all remember only about 30% of what we have learned after two days unless the material is constantly reviewed and how much can you constantly review?) 12. Have the state take statistics on the questions fail rate so you can combine the question to get the number failed you wish.13. Restricting the competition from other countries by not giving credit for medical education in other countries.14. Only recognizing some medical school in the U. S. and Canada and no other countries so students from those other countries cannot take your state medical test and get a license. 15. Making medical students from other countries be retrained in U. S. schools.16. Refusing to evaluate the medical schools in other countries so students from those school can never get credit for training in those schools17. Limiting the number of schools in the U. S. that are accredited.18. Do no allow U. S. students to only be trained for limited, narrow sub-specialties.19. Make Dental Hygienists, and other medical providers, work under a dentist or doctor instead of by themselves. 20. Give a test that requires an IQ, reading and math skills that will eliminate about 97% of the competition. By the above strategy you have used education as a weapon and cut out most of the population from competing with you and this is what the dentist, doctors, and other trades have done. But how could you increase competition and lower costs. From a book “Where There is No Dentist” by Murray Dickson
“Two things can greatly reduce the cost of adequate dental care, and the training of primary health workers as ‘dental health promoters’. In addition, numbers of ‘community dental technicians’ can be trained-in 2 to 3 months plus a period of apprenticeship-to care for up to 90% of the people who have problems of pain and infection.
Dentists’ training usually includes complicated oral surgery, root canal work, orthodontics (straightening teeth), and other complex skills. Yet most dentists rarely do more that pull, drill, and fill teeth-skills that require a fraction of the training they have received. The simpler, most common dental problems should be the work of community dental technicians who are on the ‘front lines’ (the villages), with secondary help from dentists for more difficult problems.
Would this reduce quality of service? Not necessarily. Studies have shown that dental technicians often can treat problems as well as or better than professional dentists. In Boston (U.S.A.), for example, a study showed many of the basic treatments commonly given by dentists to be done just as well, and often better, by dental technicians with much shorter training.
Fortunately, in some countries skilled dental technicians have managed to become the major providers of the most needed dental services . . .
We have learned that villagers with little formal education often can learn skills with their hands-such as tooth extractions, puppetry or surgery-much faster than university students (who have never learned to use their hands for much more than pushing pencils). We also have observed that the best way to learn dentistry is not through schools but through practice, helping someone with more experience who is willing to teach.” End.Paraprofessionals, with 3 to five years of training after high school, are trained to do the work of doctors in many countries. Obstetricians have found that these technician’s Caesarean sections are just as good as the doctor’s. We need technicians that are trained in one operation, such as cataract surgery, which is learned in China in two week, and the cost was reduced to $60 per operation. Millions of these operations are done each year so there is enough work for someone who specializes and learns only this operation. If you train one person to diagnose the need for a particular operation and an other to only do the operation you have further reduced the training time and thus the cost of many medical procedures, in some case, to mere weeks. A person can learn to install car door, as well and better, than a master mechanic, and so technician can, and do learn to do various procedures better than doctors. The nurse did a much better job putting a sprint on my broken are that the doctor did. Dental Hygienists clean my teeth far cleaner than any dentists ever did. Is that your experience?First, let us establish a principal: To make medical services affordable and achieve the lowest cost for dental and medical providers, the minimal education should be given that provides equal effects. What do I mean by equal effects? If the treatment is not improved after a particular item in each course is learned, then the particular item should not be required. (For example, my former wife taught gross-anatomy to her dental student and she could not explain why she was required to teach them about the feet and other body parts that had nothing to do with teeth.) If the cost of the doctor’s knowledge is not cost effective, to the patient, the course should not be required. If the knowledge helps only the doctor and not the patient then the learning of the knowledge should be voluntary. Many patients die each year because they cannot afford the particular treatment they need. Does the dentist hold the drill better because of the literature or other courses they have taken? When you measure the total benefits against the total cost to both the patient and dentist is there a gain? If there is not a gain the society should not let the dentist or doctor steal your money from you by restricting competition and requiring all this unnecessary time and unneeded courses. If minimal education for equal performance was required dentist would be in school for 2 year, or less and I would not have had to pay $405.00 dollars for 38 minutes for work that anyone could do. That dentist `was charging $638.00 dollars per hour which means that a minimum wage worker has to work 121 hours for one of his or the average PhD, who has more schooling, has to work 21 hours to pay for one hour of the dentists. Out of curiosity I bought a dental drill and drilled on the teeth in a cow’s skull and learned what you already know. To drill teeth you hold a rotating drill against a tooth. To decrease pain you place a chemical on the gum, to take x-rays you push a button. To interpret x-rays you look for shadows. Big Deal!!!!!!!!!
When my father, board certified in Ophthalmology and Otolaryngology and a professor at one time, was out playing golf and his patients had something in their eye, I, when in High School, would remove whatever these people had in their eye by putting in a green dye, turning the eye lid over and wiping the eye with a Q-tip. It takes two minutes to learn how to do this. You could do this as well as my father who had 11 years of training and 60 years of practice. Many things, in the practice of medicine, are that simple but practice is limited by self-serving rules.
Government is the problem and not the solution. The city, state and local governments uses their police power to force you to pay astronomical fees that licensed medical providers charge and these greedy providers exist, and only exist, because the governments have not allowed you to use the other options that would be available to you if the government stayed out of your business and the governments were not taking the monetary or political payoffs that these licensed providers pay. Before licensing medical treatment was cheap and it would be now if rational requirement of education and training were allowed.
What is the solution to all the collusion that eliminates competition and protects the trades and professions but cheats you? — Stop using education and tests as a weapon and have the law changed by: 1. Litigation 2. The Amendment process, go over the legislatures head (for example not requiring Dental Hygienist, Physicians Assistants, Nurse Anesthetist, Mid-Wives, emergency service technicians, etc. to practice under a doctor, and have different grades of dentists and doctors with some dental technicians practicing, in restricted areas, after a few months of training, because, if medical treatment is not affordable, no matter how good it is, it is worthless). 3. Pressure from the electorate. 4. Appeal to the legislatures. 5. Make people aware that medical services are much cheaper in other countries. (In am constructing a Web site that gives the medical costs in various countries. Some costs in India: Root Canal $48, Crown $108, MRI $60, $70,000 heart operation that costs $4,000 in the U.S. 6. Encourage other countries, India, China, South Africa, etc., to have off-shore hospital ships outside the U.S. border so that U.S. citizens could take a short boat ride and received the medical services they need at one-tenth the current prices. (I a will be corresponding with medical providers in other countries and will be trying to persuade other countries to provide these medical clinics and hospitals on offshore boats, so as to give our doctors some competition). 7. Your Idea.
We may have a hope and you would not be losing thousands of dollars each year if licensing in all trades and professions were more rational. A non-profit organization needs to be started that monitors and litigates licensing issues. If you are interested you could meet with me on Monday 7 PM, 12/13/04, in the Cypress Room, 3rd Floor, Orange County Library, 101 E. Central Blvd., Orlando, Fl. 32801 to discuss method of achieving these goals as well as some of your ideas.