HVACR NewsMagazine December 2017

could learn their craft, take a business class and enter the trade as a contactor with only two years experience and passing an open book test. Their pleading of “trying to earn a living” is so fake as to be disgusting. If they really cared about earning a living for their family, they would take that job with the local HVACR company and wait till they know their craft before presenting themselves to the public as a respectable business. There is nothing respectable about taking money to do a job that you don’t know how to do. There is nothing respectable about taking money from folks with limited means and not being able to complete the job. These malefactors are charlatans filled with greed and ignorance. They are so ignorant of business that they think their employer is “getting rich taking advantage of the customer by charging too much.” They actually believe that they can do jobs for less and still make a killing. That is the issue. They are willing to risk the lives of their customers so they can make “big dollars” and be their own boss. They install gas furnaces without the proper combustion air or ventilation air and risk poisoning the family with carbon monoxide. While not that many people actually die from carbon monoxide, many have flue like systems that are actually brought on by excessive levels of carbon monoxide and, yes, some do die. These malefactors install air conditioning improperly and cause mold and mildew that can be

sickening to those with allergies and asthma—especially the young and elderly. What is even worse than these malefactors? Those that champion their cause of conducting business without proper training and licensing. They rail against licensing and present their case that we could increase jobs by the thousands if only we would eliminate so called “unnecessary licensing.” Their pious, sanctimonious presentations are only exceeded by their ignorance of the trades they seek to deregulate. They defend the need of doctors, dentist, and relators to be licensed but stand against the so called “restraint of trade and protectionism” of which they accuse the trades; i.e., HVACR, electrical, and plumbing. The HVACR industry vigorously defends our actions. We welcome competition if it is technically competent. We stand unabashedly against those whose ignorance of our trade causes them to defend those that put consumers at risk though their lack of training. We have our walls of shame filled with pictures that demonstrate the unconscionable installations that put Arkansans at risk. We have pictures of those installations where the gas company had to red tag and disconnect the gas to the home because of the risk to the health of the family living in the house. No, sir. These unlicensed, untrained malefactors are not just “good ole boys” “tying to earn a living.” They, like Bonnie and Clyde,