The 'bootleggers and Baptists' dynamic applies to licensing: a high-minded consumer-protection rationale coexists with a venal self-interested motivation (protecting incomes), and proponents always invoke protection rather than admitting the wage-preserving effect; whether protection actually occurs is an empirical question.

causalpending

Speaker

Russ Roberts

Evidence Quote

whenever you impose these licensing restrictions you never say well it's important to have these so that lawyers can keep their salaries

Source

Clifford Winston on Lawyers 09/5/2011EconTalk
Created: 6/15/2026, 9:26:52 AM

My Notes

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