[thrownaway122]

The government is the trusted 3rd party.

They price gouge because it turns out that they have a monopoly. The private company would also price gouge because they would also be a monopoly - only you would not be able to lobby the private company and vote for a different one...

[logicchains]

>The private company would also price gouge because they would also be a monopoly - only you would not be able to lobby the private company and vote for a different one...

They needn't necessarily be a monopoly; there's nothing stopping multiple certification companies coexisting. Providing certification is not a natural monopoly.

[anigbrowl]

Consumers don't know which certification is worth what. If you run a business you're always getting calls from bullshit consumer certification companies trying to extract money from you by playing on your anxiety about which recommendations consumers trust.

[dmix]

Competing with the government who can put the non-accredited businesses in question out of business or fine them a large amount of money is not fair competition for any private company... so that naturally leads to a monopoly as the OP points out.

[thrownaway122]

See my other post.

[wwwtyro]

> The private company would also price gouge because they would also be a monopoly

Why would they also be a monopoly?

[thrownaway122]

> Why would they also be a monopoly?

Because otherwise there would be a proliferation of licensing companies. This would lead to competition on price (good!) but also on standards/easier certification (bad?). Customer confusion also becomes an issue here - do you really want to have to research which licensing bodies have acceptable standards as well as which providers have good prices and results before everytime you cut your hair?

I think that the ideal option is that the licensing is run by a not for profit that has the government on its board but which is run at arms length.