Should certain things in life require a permit or license?

I do think people should be more knowlegeable and aware before they have children but any sort of parental classes or licenses better be free and offered equally to everyone which won’t happen so I’m against them…also who’s the authority on what’s appropriate…the powers that be? they’re already in charge of the many disparaties we deal with in our society

I have long thought parenting skills should be taught, and people should have to have a certificate.

Also, instead of licensing pets, I think we should license people to own them. It would require making a financial committment to the pet for its natural lifespan (no dumping at shelters), a commitment to spay and neuter (even pure breds—unless one has a breeder’s license), etc.

While it is tempting to say there should be a Parental License… on the other hand, I want the government to stay the HELL out of my bedroom.

Absolutely not. For one thing as @Simone_De_Beauvoir pointed out – all these resources would have to be free and equally accessible to everyone. Not gonna happen. And I don’t think the government should dictate what we can do with our bodies generally and making babies is a part of that. I’d prefer having parenting classes available to all and encouraging all parents-to-be to attend.

And who would set these rules for parenting anyway? It all leads in bad directions.

Although it may initially sound good to me, for potential parents to need a license in case they want children, i don’t think it will be much good.
We all have drivers-licenses, but that doesn’t mean that there are no accidents and or irresponsible drivers.
So, i guess the same will go for licensed parents (or pet-owners, etc.).
License = no guarantee for success.
On top of that, who is going to rule what standards should apply, what’s it going to cost (money-wise, bureaucracy), who’s going to control it)?

@hug_of_war & @Simone_De_Beauvoir So this is ok?
I’m not saying that the government should get involved with peoples lives or that it should be a good thing to be dictated, but things like that shouldn’t be allowed.

@Axemusica that’s a whole other topic and we’ve beaten it to death here on fluther – should she have had all those children? who knows – I don’t believe what’s presented in the media…I will not be the one telling her how many kids to have…is it irresponsible? definitely, in some ways, but where to draw the line? I think that technically speaking if she had money for IVF you’d think she’d have money for the results

We need to get permits for everything! Having children is only a start! We need permits for thinking! For playing dangerous sports or doing dangerous things. People should sign waivers for having any right to any charity care or governmental support if they should be hurt due to participation in dangerous activities.

Every job should require a qualification permit. Kids should get permits for lemonade stands. People should get permits to paint their houses or do any landscaping. Hell, we need to make people get permits to wear clothes. We need taste police. People should have permits to eat fast food.

People are all idiots. They can’t be trusted to do anything for themselves. They’ll fuck it all up. People should have permits to believe in religions or any other superstitious thing.

What we need is something like IT, the machine in Madeleine L’Engle’s A Wrinkle in Time. We need to regulate thinking and activities and everything! Building permits and dog permits are just a start. We’ve got to get inside people’s heads—start at the very beginning—and only let people do officially approved activities, and only in an officially approved way.

You know there is a whole continuum of possibility here. I took the asker as being somewhat tongue-in-cheek. Others clearly didn’t.

I think the point is that less effort is spent on preparing people to be parents than is spent on school or learning to drive. That seems sort of screwy.

We require permits to drive a car or built a 8’ x 8’ shed in the backyard or own a dog. Why not have one for parenting? Which has a bigger effect on society?

owning any living animal.

I’ve often said that people ought to get certified before they can call themselves writers, but I don’t really mean that. The freedom of anybody to publish his or her screed and find an audience is a precious right.

However, a little proof of basic competencies before someone goes out and sells his or her services to unsuspecting clients as a professional writer (who commands higher fees than the editors get) wouldn’t go amiss. I speak as a member of the editorial cleanup crew who has to try to salvage something out of the unconscionable messes left behind in companies’ publications departments by some people who claimed to be able to write.

@Jeruba Writing is one of those skills like graphic design and photography that people think anyone can just do. The proof is in the output.

@Marina @Jeruba (And in the income.)

As few things as possible.

Absolutely not. We don’t need government’s “permission” to do stuff like this. That’s not what it was designed for. There’s so much that is subjective- having to gain a permit for things like breeding or being on the internet is a blanket of discrimination.

Well, @Marina, I gave a tongue-in-cheek answer. I hope people got that.

A “License” implies they need permission for it. I would rather see a competency certificate, proving they have a basic understanding of the requirements for success.

@daloon I did. I simply turned the other cheek.

Now see, @YARNLADY, that’s a very sane alternative. GA.

@hug_of_war – kind of a side topic but you mentioned: “And I don’t think the government should dictate what we can do with our bodies generally and making babies is a part of that.”... I agree with this statement to the point where I think that people should be able to smoke weed if they choose to but this is illegal.

Just a thought.

@Rachienz lots of things are illegal that shouldn’t be and lots of things are legal that shouldn’t be

@Simone_De_Beauvoir – GA :D

I love the different concepts and idea’s. The diversity on this type of subject is great! Thanks for the input guys!

@Marina LOL! GA!

Totally forgot about this question.. Just reminiscing.