Matthew Yglesias: Glibertarian Gibberish

Ygleasias eats lunch with some glibertarians and comes away livid that tour guides are required to prove that they are competent to be tour guides.  He doesn't, please not call for the reform of the regulations, reduction of the cost, the scope of the exam, or anything like that because

[y]ou don’t need a license to be a tour guide in Boston and as best I can tell everything’s fine. I’ve taken tours in Boston, and I’ve heard of any time of people visiting the city without incident.
Customers there are protected by the general laws against fraud and other forms of criminal misconduct as well as whatever discipline the marketplace and people’s concern for their reputation provides.

If the past 30 years have proved anything it is that an unregulated market is a recipe for disaster, even the glibertarian in chief figured that out. His Yglesias' glibertarian friends are going to sue DC because " the government is not allowed to require people to get a license in order to talk.”  The government can and should, however, act to ensure that people peddling their expertise are, in fact, at least moderately competent, which is what tour guides do.  If you want to stand on the corner and misinform people go right ahead. if you want to claim to know enough to be a tour guide the state has every right and an interest in ensuring that you aren't a mountebank.

There is a larger point here, regulatory regimes have a history and a purpose.  It is not the case that regulators are, as Yglesias suggests, busybodies who unfairly unnecessarily interfere with genius of the market. When Philadelphia was developing its regulations regarding tour guides, it was to end this kind of disinformation

[t]hey'll stop saying that George Washington and Abraham Lincoln once dined together. Or that Ben Franklin had not one, but 69, illegitimate children. That basement kitchens had outdoor exits so as to spare the furniture should the cook's skirts catch fire. Or that a house would be left to burn if it didn't display an insurance company fire mark.[link added]

Now I'll grant that Yglesias may have had a great time in Boston, but how on earth would he know that what heard is or isn't true. And how on earth can it be "bad for visitors" to DC or any city to be assured that their tour guide is able to score 70, which is a low C- at best, on test concerning the city's history?