LK,
I apologize and retract my use of the word petty.
The issue is anything but petty; this is serious with both lives and livelihoods at stake.
I only used the word petty in response to the following in the post that started this thread:
My wife calls me petty and spiteful for reporting these ads, and I ask her if she is concerned if her doctor graduated medical school, has a license, and knows what he is doing.
What do you think about this?
The point that I was trying to make is that laws requiring electricians are not there as a sinecure. The licence is not there for price support, is not there to restrict competition. The licence is there to provide a legal way for you to demonstrate that you have the skills to provide safe electrical installations.
My opinion is that using the licensing laws to eliminate competition is an ill use of these laws. Use them to eliminate hacks, use them to protect public safety. But it seems to me that if you interact with someone who _is_ a good electrician, but for whatever reason does not have a licence, then the first step is to figure out how to get them into the licence system. If someone is a hack, is taking money from your pocket while endangering others, then I see no problem using the licensing laws to stop them from working.
I also said in context above that I suspect that non-licensed yet well qualified electricians disserving of such 'special treatment' are few and far between. I should have qualified that by limiting such to localities which require licenses, since in a region where licences are not required both the good and the bad will equally not be licensed. As I said above, anyone who has the necessary skills to be a properly qualified electrician probably also has the intelligence needed to jump through the legal licensing hoops.
-Jon
