The big “excuse” to get the Pennsylvania government out of the liquor business is the infusion of cash the state desperately needs that would come when licenses to sell wine & liquor would be sold or auctioned off when it comes time to privatize the retail stores. It’s an easy way to sell the idea to people who don’t really care about the issue one way or another. So imagine how refreshing it was to read that our Governor took a direct free market argument to the General Assembly today.
Government can’t create jobs. And when it tries it usually makes a mess of it. Industries are built on a singular vision, not by committee. My administration is committed to a study that looks at how best to get us out of a business we should never have entered. I’m talking about the liquor business. This isn’t about the money. It’s about the principle. Government should no more run the liquor stores than it should run the pharmacies and gas stations.
To say that government messes it up is an understatement. I’ve watched state employees sell liquor to visibly intoxicated & borderline violent people. (That was fun to watch the male store employee refuse to back up the female clerk who was trying not to sell to the guy & wanted to call the cops for assistance.) The store I visited today had an anti-alcohol poster up in the window. (I bought 3 items in spite of the poster – sherry for a dish, bourbon for man, and wine suggested by Food & Wine for our pizza later this week.) When we visited a store this weekend, the clerk was yelling at a customer when we walked in. The volume of the argument did not go down once others entered the store. (I will concede the clerk was right, but there’s no reason to scream at the customer.)
The system doesn’t save us money, and we have fewer and crappier choices because of it. At least if it was a free market system, I would know the stores suck because my neighbors have crappy taste. Right now, it’s due to bureaucratic incompetence. So yay to Tom Corbett for making the free market case for privatizing the liquor & wine stores. The fact that it will help the state put its financial house back in order is just a side benefit. This needs to be done for the right reason – the government doesn’t belong in the liquor business.
Everyone knows it the political perks that these legislators get to run a business. In PA one of the most powerful house positions is the LCB board position. I have attended one reps fund raiser. His 50-50 chances were all beer and liquor signs, clocks and other chochkies. They are heroin attacks, and we need to make them go cold turkey.
The free market will bring choice and discounts. Competition is the great equalizer. We just need to trace all the licenses and seek out the brothers in laws and other connections that will occur IMHO.
Bitter,
Since it seems that this is one of your favorite issues to talk about now, I found an article that you may find quite interesting. The unique thing about the article is that the Philly Stinky acutally published it in this past Sunday’s Editorial/Commentary section. It lends a hand to ridding the state of its alcohol monoply and perhaps this gentleman should be one of the people testifying before the State House and Senate committees…
http://www.philly.com/philly/blogs/inq_ed_board/Antony_Davies_.html
Not to mention, our current system has jobs, that are worth slightly more than the equivalent position at thee local supermarket, being paid union premiums with pensions and all the other niceties that a less fiscally responsible administration agreed to.
They even have their own police force, with custom firearms!