Sorry, but I've troubles following your argument in this case. What you are basically calling for is one or more certification authorities that certify that person A is capable of performing a certain task. Am I right? This would replace required license. The difference is basically that licenses are mandatory, certifications are optional, and that (but I infer this from your Friedman's quote) certification authorities could compete.

If this is your point, sorry but your argument doesn't follow. There's nothing against the certification authority requiring 52 hours of training. And there's nothing against Zenefits cheating if they believe a certified expert is better than an uncertified one (and this is the argument underlying Mr. Friedman discussion).

Certification vs. Licensing is a complex discussion topic, I tend to prefer certifications over licensing, but this is definitively not the point with Zenefits.