4 ms·
To play devil's advocate, there are too many instances of families ruined by alcoholism and heart disease, but you can still buy beer and cheeseburgers. We cle
by cheald 10y ago
To play devil's advocate, there are too many instances of families ruined by alcoholism and heart disease, but you can still buy beer and cheeseburgers.
We clearly will tolerate negative externalities to some degree; a good or service having a negative externality shouldn't be justification enough for banning it.
- sfifs 10y agoWell either you ban it or put frictional controls that make it more difficult or expensive to access (steep taxes etc). It's a continuum based on how negative an externality does a community judge something to be and how much opposition do they think it would stir up. You'll find provinces in India and many countries outside of US/Europe do ban alcohol even today. In US and Europe, the problem is alcohol is too entwined in popular culture to outright ban. However in some places, sale of hard liquor is controlled through government monopoly shops which amounts to another form of control or frictional control. For instance, I recall seeing government liqor shops when visiting Sweden (Systembolaget). Similar restrictions are applied to tobacco practically everywhere.
- auxym 10y agoNo need to look as far as Sweden, in most Canadian provinces, alcohol is controlled through a Gov-monopoly. In some of them, you can buy beer&wine at the grocery store (or convenience stores), but even they have to buy it from the official government supplier and sell at the fixed price.
- Forbo 10y agoDABC in Utah is a perfect example of a government run monopoly on alcohol. The only wine and liquor stores in the state are run by the state. Many absurd regulations crop up alongside this, for instance the Zion Curtain.
- jliptzin 10y agoAlso cigarettes and second hand smoke. But go ahead, smoke all you want.