I received an announcement from Governor Sanford of South Carolina. The odd thing is that I could read the whole document verbatim and you couldn’t tell the governor’s thoughts from mine. I’m in complete agreement.
With what?
Well, the new bill he signed, H.3803. It removes the legal requirement for shampooers to receive the same state-mandated 1,500 hours of training that cosmetologists receive.
Unfortunately, the bill does nothing to address the fact that state law requires 1,500 hours of training to be a cosmetologist — almost four times the amount of state-required training to become a police officer — and just one of a number of examples of overregulation by state government that Governor Sanford highlighted during the news conference.
There. I’ve just cribbed more than a paragraph from Governor Sanford.
And no, governor, your check is not in the mail.
The truth about South Carolina is that it is an amazingly over-regulated state. It makes no sense to demand cosmetologists be more schooled in their art than police. The worst that could happen from a bad cosmetologist? A bad hair-do. Lice. The worst from a police officer? You could be shot in the head.
Sanford said such regulation “is more about protecting the profits of people in a particular industry rather than protecting the consumer.â€
In most cases, he said. The other cases?
Those regulations are “Just plain silly.â€
Bingo.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.