Interior design: Most homeowners wing it, but a few call in the professionals.
Regulation of interior design: Most states just let our nation’s Graces freely contract with willing Wills. But a significant number of states, including Oklahoma and Connecticut, regulate these designing women and men.
Why? Have you heard a horrified outcry of Upton Sinclairesque proportions? I sure haven’t. I’m sure old Upton would have cooked up some story, if it had crossed his mind. He believed in regulating everything. He hated free enterprise, enough to lie for his cause.
So, who hates freedom of contract enough to regulate the industry?
Why, the industry itself!
A study released last year by the Institute for Justice shows that one group of interior designers, the American Society of Interior Designers, has been pushing regulation for years. Why? For one clear reason: to clear out the competition.
On the bright — or at least pastel — side, the group hasn’t been all that successful recently. So the group has raised its membership fees, redoubled lobbying efforts.
In response, a competing group, the Interior Design Protection Council, joined with the Institute for Justice to declare the month just passed, September, as Interior Design Freedom Month.
It’s too late to celebrate. But — wait a second — shouldn’t every month be Interior Design Freedom Month?
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.