BCT Editorial – 7/13/10

On the agenda; Editorial; Beaver County Times; July 13, 2010.

All I want to do is remind readers its editorial body of work indicates the Times believes much more in a free market and/or privatization for alcoholic beverages than it does for education and healthcare.  There have been several editorials advocating “liquor laws that reflect modern times.”  As I’ve noted previous critiques, I lived in Texas for over 18 years and I can testify the ability to buy alcohol in grocery stores, private liquor stores, et cetera and the lack of state stores didn’t bring about the end of the world.  I agree government shouldn’t be in the business of selling alcoholic beverages – or anything else – but I wanted to note the Times’ inconsistency.

I could be falling into a language trap, though.  Because I’m a conservative, when I read “privatization” I assume that means a free market.  We know, however, privatization does not necessarily mean a free market.  Education and healthcare are just two examples.  The idea licenses would be auctioned indicates there would be a limited number of licenses, and that tends to indicate something other than a free market.  Given the Times history and ideological leaning, it’s possible (likely?) the Times simply wants the private sector to provide the capital while the state provides so much regulation that it’s the de facto operator.  Another name for that arrangement is fascism.

As for the editorial paraphrasing Rahm Emanuel, chief-of-staff for Barack Obama, here is what Mr. Emanuel told the Wall Street Journal CEO Council on November 18, 2008: “You never want a serious crisis to go to waste.  What I mean by that is it’s an opportunity to do things that you think you could not do before.  This is an opportunity.  What used to be long-term problems -- be they in the health care area, energy area, education area, fiscal area, tax area, regulatory reform area -- things that we had postponed for too long that were long-term are now immediate and must be dealt with.  And this crisis provides the opportunity for us, as I would say, the opportunity to do things that you could not do before.”  Secretary of State Hillary Clinton made a similar comment on March 6, 2009, while speaking at the European Parliament.  In both cases the speakers were talking about using government-generated crises to enact policies the American voter would not normally support.  It would take the Times to see a parallel between that situation and bringing the sale of alcoholic beverages out of the days of Prohibition, something I suspect most voters have wanted for a long time.