The Lure of The Professions

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 61, 3 June 1927, Page 9

The Lure of The Professions

SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC? SHELTER OF FIXED PRICES (From Our Resident Reporter.) WELLINGTON, Thursday'. Some explanation of the magnet which draws many people to the professions—in many' cases to the point of overcrowding—is suggested by Mr. D. O. Williams, M.A., Lecturer in Economics at Victoria College, who spoke before the Wellington branch of the Australia and New Zealand Economic Society'. “In some cases,” he said, “the attraction of the profession lies in the opportunities they' afford to the able to attain distinction. More persuasive is the attraction due to the social esteem in which the professions are held. In our imperfect code of social valuations, the individual attains the merit which public judgment accords to the profession itself. “There are other attractive forces. One of them I believe to be what is virtually and substantially the systems of price maintenance practised in varying ways and with differing degrees of elasticity in these walks of life. “These forms of price maintenance have in some cases been gradually* evolved into very effective practice and given the binding force of professional ethics. In other cases they have been agreed upon in more formal manner Whatever their history or precise nature, they serve to shelter large areas of professional practice from price competition. The effect is to add to the attractive forces that keep these professions full. “In the case of the legal and medical professions, numerous entrants can give no guarantee of quality or ability. Ability is an individual matter and the minimum is roughly determined by our systems of examination. Price main - tenance insofar as it is an operant attractive force has no determinable effect upon the ability of the professions. We cannot urge greater ability as a compensation for price maintenance. The probabilities are that the average of ability is lowered.”