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I have two large volumes in my library, titled: "Arizona Construction Law" and "California Contrators License Law". These are required reading for anyone applying for a general contractor's license in those states. Anyone familier with them would quickly notice that they deal with such matters as Workman's Comp, liability insurance, unemployment insurance, Social Security tax, state taxes, business management regulations, business licenses, business records requirements, contract laws, labor code, housing law, Mechanic's liens, Statutory liens, Non-Statutory liens, Arbitration of claims, etc. NONE of this has to do with a builder's knowledge of construction. These books deal entirely with the rules and proceedures for relating to beaurocrats. Builders do not always have to know how to build! What a builder is required to know is how to cooperate with government agents and agencies. The builder who is approved and sanctioned by the beaurocracy is not the one who is most competent as a builder, but the one who is best at appeasing the beaurocrats. Under these circumstances, licensing of builders builds nothing less than a Confidence racket!The most distressing consequence I have seen of this approach to builder's licensing, was in Pheonix, back in the '80s. The S&L lending spree was in full swing, attracting lawyers, accountants and bankers from as far away as New York and Calgary, Canada. These people were already familier with the beaurocratic proceedures. Under the rules then in effect, they had to have someone in their organizations with construction knowledge to get a contractor's license. Arizona required that someone in charge had to pass a test demonstrating minimum competence. The people found to fill this role were often the derilicts of the trade. Some were alcoholics who could pass the test while sober, but drank every night and never got to the jobsite before 7:am, nor carried a tape measure to check footings and walls against the plans. Houses were slapped up so fast that inspectors could not keep up. They would make cursory checks; find anything to tag the first visit, then on to the next. One of my coworkers bought a house from U.S. Homes, found several serious code violations and sued the builder. He then had to organize his neighbors to prevent U.S. Homes from bulldozing one house that had been presented as evidence of the builder's shoddyness. The builder attempted to bulldoze the house in violation of a court order, only to find the neighbors, with cameras, standing in his way. Other customers were not so lucky.In a short time, these so-called builders suddenly disappeared. Subdivisions had been built out and sold, but subcontractors who had worked on the finish stages were left unpaid. Cabinet makers, finish carpenters, painters, landscapers, electricians, plumbers, all went belly-up. Loss of payment on a few houses they could have absorbed, but they had been subbed on whole subdivisions, expecting to come out comfortable. Instead, they were broke. The licensing system had done nothing to weed out the fly-by-nighters. Instead, it made it easier for them.