Hello. I’m an accounting major and was wondering about the role of the accountant in a free society. Government regulation has created a large demand for accountants with legislation such as Sarbanes-Oxley and of course our obscene tax code. As an advocate of freedom, I would like to see all of this repealed (along with the abolition of the State). So my question is: What can one currently do in the accounting field that would actually be productive and necessary without government regulation?
I think instead of accountants spending their time working for one or a few firms, we’ll see accountants spending less of their time per firm, and may hence do accounting for more firms, so you’ll be handling more firms at any one time since it would generally require less time. Demand for accountants might fall not only because of less accounting time needed, but also because the absense of all these unnecessary regulations would make it much easier for small businesses to do their own accounting, rather than hire specialists. But medium and large sized firms are likely to continue hiring accountants.