What are the fundamental reasons for using licensing as a regulatory control? What are the alternatives?

Question

What are the fundamental reasons for using licensing as a regulatory control? What are the alternatives?

Answer 1

The fundamental reasoning for licensing is that a license is a tool to prove that the holder of the license has been approved by the govenment or a board (or whatever) that they are capable of holding that license - the capability can be tested in various manners, for instance the holder could have been tested physically, orally or by an written exam. He could have submitted a written and/or oral application, or have been evaluated or have gone through an evaluation period.

I can't think of an alternative regulatory control tool off the top of my head, but I can think of alternatives to issueing a license in the form of a card - I think e-licences is a good idea - that way you can't physically loose it! I think in the future we might all become recognisable through retina scanning, which can access all your details, including a list of all licences you hold and possibly also your bank account, making it possible to pay in shop this way (I only saw the tail end of the piece, but I believe they have started a trial in a German supermarket making it possible to pay through retina scanning).

Answer 2

Tattoos!

The unfortunate thing about tattoos is in the fact that they are, for the most part, permanent.

Therefore this makes it very hard to track legitimate licensing in order to generate a continued revenue stream and monitor for health and safety.

These are the things that licensing provides and tattooing the perspective candidate rather than issuing a license would not necessarily make it any easier but you did ask for alternatives.