

American beer and spirits

Prohibition hangover


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Readers' comments



Damn Dirty Ape

How can you have an article about alcohol laws, mentioning prohibition and not talk about the ongoing prohibition of drugs. When alcohol was banned by do-gooders who thought that the role of the state was to improve the morality of its citizens at the point of a gun, there were consequences.
1)Good people were put in jail, not for harming others but for "harming" themselves.
2) Organized crime received a huge influx of cash and power. Their output of violence increased.
3)After repeal, alcohol laws were a tool to achieve rent seeking from the few lucky enough to be allowed to sell booze.

Today, we have all of the same self-induced problems.
1) Injustice
2) Organized crime
3) Rent seeking (by private prisons and law enforcement employees.)

Sad and pathetic. We need justice. We need to end prohibition.

commentator no. 12 and 35

one of the best argument for deregulation and an end of government interference I've ever read — let's drink to that! :)
not to grouse too much, but one thing I would've like added an argument against America's ridiculous, harmful, hypocritical, largely flouted 21 drinking age law, which has to be one of the most-broken laws in the US outside of the financial industry. As a waiter earlier this decade I remember having to deny multiple under-21 Iraq War vets, who mentioned to me that they that couldn't believe that it was OK if they killed Iraqis or had to take a bullet for Uncle Sam but not if they had a beer.


"gassy, mass-produced bathwater"

Thank you! Preach, brother! I'd have said equine urine but, well, I guess TE needs to keep it classy.


So.. What you are basically saying, is that if you deregulate the market, you'll get more consumer choice, more activity, and incidentally, more employment? Oh my, what an amazing concept! Somebody, tell that to politicians, quick!

Frank Coleman

The unattributed data in the article suggesting that craft distiller US market volume is 25% and sales are 45% is delusional and should be corrected.

Ah Beng in reply to kevina2

The strongest argument that I've heard for a slow phase-in for the legalization of pot is that there needs to be a rapid sobriety test developed before laws against intoxicated driving, operation of machinery, or various other circumstances can be applied. Apparently something is in the works on this so the argument might evaporate soon, but it's already powerful.

The strongest counterpoint I've gotten to this is, and I'm paraphrasing, "but those guys are already on the road, so what's the difference?"

D. Sherman

Regarding the statement that "Control states tend to offer consumers two things they do not want: higher prices and less choice.", the exact opposite has happened in the state of Washington, at least with regard to prices. A very contentious initiative was recently passed, funded largely by major retailers, to get the state out of the liquor business. The usual arguments were thrown back and forth: That closing state liquor stores would put people out of work, that private stores would sell to minors and drunks, that the government has no business running a retail operation, and that competition would lower prices. That last point in turn was argued as either a good thing (by those who wanted to drink more cheaply) or a bad thing (by those who thought it would lead to more drunkenness).

It's been only a few months since the state stores were closed, but it took only a few days for people to realize that, after all the taxes were added in, the price they paid at checkout was actually higher than it had been when Washington was a "control state". Idaho, right next door, is still a control state, and is sometimes referred to as the second Mormon state, and yet its liquor prices remain well below Washington's. So, it's not so simple as that statement makes it sound.

Another thing missing from this article was a discussion of how per-capita alcohol consumption has been decreasing in this country over the past century. I don't have the figures handy, and of course there have been times when consumption increased for a while, but the long term trend is definitely that Americans are drinking less. What they are doing is drinking higher quality products. A century ago, any beer or any whiskey would do the job for most drinkers. Now it's all about branding and taste, like it's been with wine for a long time. This is why even the big brewers and distillers are trying to create or buy "micro" and "craft" brands; sales and margins of the mass-produced product are declining, so they need to move up-market.

Interestingly, a shift from generic products (remember "Beer Beer"?) to branded craft products with appellations is exactly what the marketing consultants recommended to the Humboldt pot growers a couple of years ago when the citizens of California threatened to legalize marijuana. The initiative failed, but in the meantime it frightened the growers, and the county governments dependent on pot revenue, into realizing that if pot were legal, prices would drop (roughly by half, the consultants said), and growers would have to "brand" their product like the vintners do. The consultants also recommended "tasting tours" to connect connoisseurs with producers.

Dark Archon

Now if we can just apply this sort of innovation to other production/manufacturing industries. Hopefully the result would be higher quality products tailored more specifically to the consumer. Now if I could just get Harpoon IPA in Canada...

Drink less but drink better!


Part of the slowness in changing the antiquated local laws, despite them being inefective in curbing alcohol related problems, is that a politician will have to say "we're going to relax the regulations on alcohol."
The sound of that doesn't sit well with a lot of voters even though it's the apropriate move.


There is one control state that still seems to attract buyers from neighboring non-control states: New Hampshire. Of course, the highway rest area locations, generous hours, lack of sales tax, and rock-bottom prices help as well...

Mon Ami Gabi

The drinking age is so often flouted that it erodes respect for the law... this and fake id's were the first things that came to mind.
But does anyone actually respect the law? At least, not in the sense "following the law" but in the sense of actually having any respect for it as something well founded (as something commanding respect).
With the conressional approval rating at 13.8% few Americans believe it to be well founded (even the supreme court is at 44% now). Congress is like a sausage factory and the Law is the big ugly stinky wiener that comes out.
"Erodes respect for the law" sounds quite funny to me. What respect?
Is marijuana legal or not? Can I buy my beer here, and drink it there? who knows... The law is also a wiener that changes shape depending on the time, day, color of your skin, money you have (quality of lawyer), where your standing, and what kind of air you like breathing!

Ah Beng

In school I and my buddies were very disappointed to find that home distillery is still illegal. Making moonshine would have been pretty awesome. That being said I understand why the regulation is still in place... preventing methanol-induced blindness clearly falls within the domain of public health.

Cool Beans

lol keep writing articles like this and we will all soon be free market disciples. Great stuff - this correspondence seems to have had good fun researching this topic. I'm surprised he kept it together judging by the various drinks he's had to "research."
Also, hats of to Tennessee - they're looking like the best state in the US what with Gibson Guitars and Jack Daniels - the best companies - calling the state their home!


I just want to point out that Americans never use the word spirits in conversation to refer to liquor. You see the word in business articles such as this one or maybe on a menu.

At the airport last year I noticed a sign reading "taxi queue". I wondered how many people pronounced the word correctly in their minds or realized they were reading a word they never say.


The author is wrong on the issue of government-controlled sales.

Our government-controlled seller is the largest single purchaser of wine and spirits in the world.

It has very wide selection (and if they don't have what you want, their friendly and helpful staff will gladly order for you however much of it you want) - far wider selection than any private liquor store I've ever seen selling wines anywhere else. Since it is a very large purchaser, it has at least modest bargaining power as a buyer.

Unlike the seedy iron-bars-on-the-windows, dirty, grubby, hole-in-the-wall stores you find elsewhere, the government run stores are big, clean, well lit, and well run. Nobody ever robs a liquor store here.

Best of all, the government controlled system makes an enormous profit, which accrues to the public purse. It is a huge revenue source.

No, I wouldn't get rid of the government control system at any price.


It's not just the occasional dry county in the US. In 1918, Houston annexed a small town ('Houston Heights')that had voted itself dry in 1912, and after some court-battling, remains dry today. So here is a dry district within city limits.


Fascinating article. Would it be possible to know your source for the figure "Around 6% of Americans live in dry counties or towns"?

Dzmity H. in reply to justkidding

thanks for the link, though I don't really understand 1) conversion into "standard drinks" 2) "supplier gross revenue". you can measure alco-market in 1) volume (litres) 2) revenue = volume x retail shelf prices 3) pure alcohol consumed. My point is that spirits and wine tend to be higher priced than beer due to excise duty tax for one thing (not to mention their more "premium" consumer perception vs. beer). In my country beer is also very popular accounting for ~50% of all volume and spirits roughly 25% but on average consumer-end price per litre for spirits is twice as much as beer (at least) so both have appr. the same revenue share (30% and 30%) of total alco-market. From the graph in the article it follows that spirits and wine in the US aren't much expensive than beer.



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