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IN 1941 Franklin Roosevelt added two new items to America’s ancestral freedoms of speech and worship: freedom from fear and freedom from want. Today’s politicians offer a far more generous menu: freedom from unlicensed hair-cutters, freedom from cowboy flower-arrangers and, most important of all, freedom from rogue interior designers. What is the point of enjoying freedom from fear or want, after all, if you cannot enjoy freedom from poorly co-ordinated colour schemes?
In the 1950s, when organisation man ruled, fewer than 5% of American workers needed licences. Today, after three decades of deregulation, the figure is almost 30%. Add to that people who are preparing to obtain a licence or whose jobs involve some form of certification and the share is 38%. Other rich countries impose far fewer fetters than the land of the free. In Britain only 13% of workers need licences (though that has doubled in 12 years).
Some occupations clearly need to be licensed. Nobody wants to unleash amateur doctors and dentists on the public, or untrained tattoo artists for that matter. But, as the Wall Street Journal has doggedly pointed out, America’s Licence Raj has extended its tentacles into occupations that pose no plausible threat to health or safety—occupations, moreover, that are governed by considerations of taste rather than anything that can be objectively measured by licensing authorities. The list of jobs that require licences in some states already sounds like something from Monty Python—florists, handymen, wrestlers, tour guides, frozen-dessert sellers, firework operatives, second-hand booksellers and, of course, interior designers—but it will become sillier still if ambitious cat-groomers and dog-walkers get their way.

A. 어휘
threat 위협. interior designers 실내 디자이너. items 項目(항목).
want 窮乏(궁핍). flower-arrangers 꽃꽂이 전문가.
rogue 惡漢(악한). co-ordinated 조화시킨. schemes 계획, 설계, 도표, 圖解(도해).
organisation man 조직인간, 조직 順應者(순응자).
deregulation 規制(규제) 撤廢(철폐). obtain 획득하다.
certification 면허, 증명서, 면허장. share 占有率(점유율), 몫, 할당비율.
impose 부과하다, 강요하다. fetters 足鎖(족쇄).
the land of the free 자유민의 나라(미국). occupations 직업.
unleash 束縛(속박)을 풀다. tattoo 文身(문신). Journal 신문.
doggedly 끈질기게, 頑强(완강)하게.
Licence Raj 자격증 통치. cf. raj 영국의 인도통치.
extend 뻗다, 확대하다. tentacles 觸手(촉수). plausible 그럴듯한.
govern 통치하다. objectively 객관적으로. measure 측정하다.
licensing authorities 자격증 발급당국.
Monty Python 영국의 코미디 연속극. Python 그리스 神話(신화)의 거대한 뱀.
florists 꽃장수, 화초연구가. handymen 잡역부.
firework operatives 爆竹(폭죽) 職工(직공).
wrestlers 烙印(낙인)을 찍기 위해 소를 넘어뜨리는 사람(미국 서부).
second-hand booksellers 헌 책 판매상. sillier still 더욱더 어리석은.
groomers 操鍊師(조련사), 다듬는 사람. dog-walkers 개를 산책시키는 사람.
get their way 하고 싶은 것을 해내다.