Psychic Regulation

Government is getting pretty desperate for new ways to raise cash, and is always in the market for more authority over the citizenry, so what better way to kill two birds with one stone than to get into the Psychic business? I wonder if this will snowball from an annual fee into some kind of quality control mechanism that tracks psychic's predictions and fines them for inaccuracies. Maybe a psychic can come forward and let us know the future of this kind of program!


www.thedailybell.com...

Starting this week, fortune tellers in Warren, Mich., must be fingerprinted and pay an annual fee of $150 — plus $10 for a police background check — to practice their craft. The new rules are among America's strictest on palmists, fortune readers, and other psychics — and part of a growing push to regulate a business that has never been taken, or overseen, very seriously. But officials in Warren, a town of 138,000 near Detroit, say it's time to weed out tricksters. "We had no mechanism of enforcement to protect people against unsavory characters," Warren City Council member Keith Sadowski says. "We want to be sure there is some recourse in case we do get somebody who is not legitimate." Regulating an industry that deems itself clairvoyant, has no standard education requirements and yet rakes in cash for revealing spiritual truths may itself be an act of faith. It also might make good economic sense: just over one in seven Americans consulted a psychic or fortune-teller in 2009, according to the Pew Forum for Religion and Public Life. That could be 30 million or more of us. – Time Magazine

clearly the best way to get a record of citizens with psychic abilities, isn't it?

second... blah. time to get some sleep.

Originally posted by jedi_hamster
clearly the best way to get a record of citizens with psychic abilities, isn't it?

new remote view recruits to the CIA
might be a more accurate description.

I hope they fight this tooth and nail.
They can find anyone who commits
a crime just as easy without doing
this.

when they came for the psychics
I didn't speak up cuz I wasn't psychic, etc....

I suppose caveat emptor is obsolete now. Cities are desperate for revenue around here and so they are trying to skim-off the money stream whereever possible, likely as an alternative to upping property taxes or upping the revenue collection responsibilites of traffic cops. The best justification, naturally, is protecting citizens against their own (poor) judgement and credulity.

So, yes, I agree with the idea that it's about raising money. They'll naturally want to tap fresh sources rather than risk driving people out of town altogther.

[edit on 9/4/2010 by EnlightenUp]

Another city council run amok. The State will have a list of valid occupational codes they regulate and the city will find no way around that.
If there's not a recognized occupation to regulate, where would the city find such authority - unless the psychic has a store front commercial operation which is subject to zoning regulation.

Seems to me this is basically extortion under color of public office.

gj