S. David Young argues that occupational licensing results in the misallocation of labor and harms consumers.

America’s founders thought the right to earn a living was so basic and obvious that it didn’t need to be mentioned in the Bill of Rights. The Right to Earn a Living charts the history of this fundamental human right, from the constitutional system that was designed to protect it by limiting government’s powers, to the Civil War Amendments that expanded protection to all Americans, regardless of race.

"Attempts to present a systematic discussion of the major benefits and costs of occupational licensing to the economies of the United States and several European countries." - page xiii.