Workers have the alternative of self-employment, but here too governments have cut them off. Local and state governments require licenses for hundreds of ordinary occupations such as hairdressing, installing fences, operating a taxi, or cleaning septic tanks. Licensing boards, composed of practitioners eager to restrict the entry of competitors, require extensive training, long residency, or passing a test, thereby slamming the door on people seeking self-sufficiency. Outside the labor market, governments enforce many rules that make employment more difficult for the unskilled. Zoning laws make it hard for low-wage workers to find affordable housing in suburban areas where jobs are more abundant.
Building codes have a similar effect.
Regulatory requirements for day-care providers effectively exclude many welfare mothers from an occupation they could readily pursue. With so many artificial hurdles to leap, most job-seeking welfare recipients are destined to fail. Confronting this reality, the states will demand exemption from or delay in meeting their legal requirements under the new system. They will resort to accounting tricks, as some already anticipate. Erstwhile welfare recipients will wind up in pseudo-jobs at taxpayer expense.