> Ontario's strategy with booze is responsible consumption (or whatever it's called)... essentially price it sufficiently high that we don't get too many drunks

> Ontario's strategy with booze is responsible consumption (or whatever it's called)... essentially price it sufficiently high that we don't get too many drunks on the street. Sin taxes are actually composed of two distinct effects: the effect of increasing price and therefore reducing negative externalities like you mentioned. In addition, a well structured sin tax should use it's gross profit to fund support services like rehabilitation and health services. LCBO only does 1 of those things well. LCBO marks up their product by a percentage, which impacts premium products more than lower priced products[0]. If LCBO was committed to decreasing consumption of alcohol, it would apply a flat fee to each unit of alcohol, which would maximize utility and minimize the impact to the rest of the alcohol industry. 0: http://hellolcbo.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/1251/~/lcbo-pricing-structure%3A-price-markup-example http://hellolcbo.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/1251/~/lcbo-pri...