I'm surprised that Brennan left out the recent news about Oregon's proposed beer tax of 1900%. (and the fans in Asheville go crazy) The state enjoys the second lowest beer tax in the Union (I talk that way since I have been down here in Dixie) and has not raised it in 32 years. If that sounds familiar, it's kind of like Georgia's gas tax policy. Oregon aims to keeps its citizens drinking and brewing, and Georgia wants its people driving and building roads.
The proponents of House Bill 2641 (pdf) say that this tax is aimed at assisting recovering addicts, but brewers say that pints could increase by as much as $1.50 and six packs by $2 to $4. The whole debate sounds very similar to that around tax increases on cigarettes, which I tend to agree with. While I would be upset about more expensive beer, it wouldn't really detour me from drinking it. Already I am more likely to buy a bomber or a six pack and drink a fine beer at home to save some cash and higher taxes would likely increase this behavior. Thus pubs might be the real losers. But if you want to attack the real addiction problems of the state, why not up the meth tax by like a million percent?
More coverage of the Beer Tax
Support for the Beer Tax
Stories on Oregon's Meth Problem
Great call Vargo - I wasn't aware of this. You know, this is part of a a much bigger issue: how Americans use the law to try to control alcohol in really strange ways. For example, the blue laws: what in the hell are those? The only way you can make a case for outlawing liquor sales on Sundays is by (sometimes covertly) relying on religious arguments. It's the Lord's day, etc. Clearly not Constitutional, yet this very year our (totally ridiculous) state legislature voted to continue the blue laws. Also, the distribution thing is a part of this, since it was initially a way to control the evil alcohol right after prohibition (which itself deserves some thought: we outlawed liquor altogether). It would be interesting to see what justifications politicians pull our to continue to support these measures (like "supporting addicts," or "it's for the kids"), especially since many of the folks interested in the blue laws are clearly doing so for reasons the politicians can't (o shouldn't be able to) cite, like "the Bible says so" or some crazy crap like that. I'd love to see a major US city besides Savannah and NOLA (are there others?) allow people to drink in public, like in Europe. I think this issue of taxing beer heavily (part of the "sin taxes," right?) is in a way related to these other issues.
ReplyDeletegood thing I am headed to oregon this summer!
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