Silly Consensus
A new 8min video echos this year old WSJ article:
Imagine you were a state legislator and some folks asked you to pass a law making it a crime to give advice about paint colors and throw pillows without a license. And imagine they told you that the only people qualified to place large pieces of furniture in a room are those who have gotten a college degree in interior design, completed a two-year apprenticeship, and passed a national licensing exam. …
The American Society of Interior Designers (ASID) … have waged a 30-year, multimillion-dollar lobbying campaign to legislate their competitors out of business. And those absurd restrictions on advice about paint selection, throw pillows and furniture placement represent the actual fruits of lobbying in places like Alabama, Nevada and Illinois …
Fifty years ago, only 5% of the American workforce was licensed; today it is nearly 30%. We’re not talking about brain surgeons or airline pilots, either. Louisiana requires florists to be licensed (yes, florists), and in several states — including Louisiana, Oklahoma and Virginia — only licensed funeral directors may sell caskets.
The only supporting argument I could find at the ASID website says:
Every decision an interior designer makes in one way or another affects the health, safety and welfare of the public. Those decisions include specifying furniture, fabrics and carpeting that comply with fire codes and space planning that provides proper means of egress. Additionally, interior designers deal with accessibility issues, ergonomics, lighting, acoustics and design solutions for those with special needs.
This is completely inadequate as an economic argument, and I expect economists would pretty strongly agree that neither economic theory nor data on net supports such regulations. But economists almost never actually speak up about them, and they continue to grow. Why?
My colleagues tell me that it would just seem silly to make a fuss over this; it is just not a serious topic. Yes we can’t take seriously the idea of legally requiring a college degree to suggest where pillows go, but we also can’t take seriously an economist who would focus on such a trivial and obvious point. Economists are supposed to talk about serious, important, difficult topics, you see.
Which saddens me more than I can say. Yes focusing on areas where answers are not obvious, where we disagree, better adds to our body of knowledge. But if we cannot actually apply that knowledge effectively to obvious cases, what is the point exactly?
I know, academic economics isn’t about good policy; academia mostly sells affiliation with credentialed impressiveness. But I think of all those students suffering needlessly through useless classes, and their customers later paying needlessly extra for it, and it still makes me sad.
I would like to elaborate on Mtm's response here in regards to hospital design. Often, the architect designs the shape of the building, the structural needs, and of course the overall design. The interior designer comes in to detail the ceiling plans, the materials and finishes used for the flooring (again- non-slip flooring is an issue as well as off-gassing materials), the interior elevations- including the height of ADA toilets (these details include the height of the toilet, the selection of the toilet and whether it meets building code, the height and placement of assisting bars in the toilet rooms, the layout of these toilet rooms to ensure that there is room for a wheelchair to maneuver in these rooms, and many more... just for the toilet room!!), as well as several additional details, such as electrical.
There is a tremendous amount of responsibility put on an interior designer- and we work at less than a teachers' salary and are constantly barraged with ignorant posts such as this one. Lesson of the day? Respect your interior designer and the level of knowledge we hold. We didn't study intensely in the toughest programs in school to be told that we pick paint colors.
To every one of you who claim that all interior designers do is to match colors and select pillows... this is EXACTLY why we need legislation. Because people do not even know what we do and it is WIDELY misunderstood. Interior designers are Interior architects. We are trained in architecture... from the inside out. Architects are trained in structural design, we are trained in interior design.
As an interior designer, I have selected floor tile for ADA accessible ramps complying with building code to meet the proper slip rating coefficient and ensure that when that tile is wet, people with disabilities are not sliding and injuring themselves. I ensure that safety exits are placed within rooms as needed. I understand what materials are appropriate for use vs. those that may be flammable or otherwise unsafe.I do not select pillows. I do not hang pictures. In fact, if I were asked to do so I would fail miserably. I am not a good decorator. I do, however, understand the amount of acoustical material needed in a particular square footage of a gym. I also know how to detail the structure of a window so that it looks the way the architectural designer would like it to look and maintains energy standards per the Leadership for Energy Efficient Design.Please, educate yourselves before shoving your foot in your mouth and completely misinforming others in regards to someone else's profession.