175-4-806
You might imagine that Americans would be up in arms about all this. After all, the Licence Raj embodies the two things that Americans are supposed to be furious about: the rise of big government and the stalling of America’s job-creating machine. You would be wrong. Florida’s legislature recently debated a bill to remove licensing requirements from 20 occupations, including hair-braiding, interior design and teaching ballroom-dancing. For a while it looked as if the bill would sail through: Florida has been a centre of tea-party agitation and both chambers have Republican majorities. But the people who care most about this issue—the cartels of incumbents—lobbied the loudest. One predicted that unlicensed designers would use fabrics that might spread disease and cause 88,000 deaths a year. Another suggested, even more alarmingly, that clashing colour schemes might adversely affect “salivation”. In the early hours of May 7th the bill was defeated. If Republican majorities cannot pluck up the courage to challenge a cartel of interior designers when Florida’s unemployment rate is more than 10%, what hope has America? The Licence Raj may be here to stay.

A. 어휘
be up in arms 무기를 들고 일어서다. Licence Raj 자격증 통치.
embodies 구체화하다, 구현하다. furious 분노하다. stalling 停滯(정체).
legislature 州 의회. debate 토론하다. bill 법안.
remove 제거하다. licensing requirements 자격증 요구. ballroom 무도장.
tea-party 增稅(증세)억제와 작은 정부를 지향하는 미국의 보수주의운동 단체.
agitation 운동, 煽動(선동), 動搖(동요). both chambers 兩院(양원).
cartels 기업연합. incumbents 現職者(현직자), 旣得權者(기득권자).
predict 예상하다. fabrics 織物(직물), 구조. clashing 부딪치다, 조화가 되지 않는.
adversely 반대로, 해롭게. salivation 침을 냄.
pluck up 분발하다, 북돋우다.