Tantalizing front page story (for civil libertarians at least) in this morning's Standard-Examiner, announcing that one Mormon Weber County legislator, House District 7 Representative Ryan Wilcox, is proposing... get this... the privatization of "the retail sale of liquor in Utah":
Gotta say we were gobsmacked by the headline, wondering how this relatively inexperienced "Mo-Mo" Wilcox kid would have summoned up the audacity to present a bill like this before a decidedly "Mormon" Legislature"... until we got down to the "fine print" contained in the last paragraph of today's Loretta Park story:
Wilcox said his proposal would include maintaining the same standards and control the state currently has over the sale of liquor, but with private businesses operating the liquor stores.It thus becomes even more explicit when you read this language from today's SLTrib story on this topic, which basically, although more thoroughly than the Standard-Examiner, covers the same ground:
Wilcox said Utah’s model for privately run stores could come from so-called package agencies, run by private individuals. The agencies, which date back to the 1930s, are in small towns and rural areas where it’s not economically feasible to open a large, state-controlled store. [Emphasis added.]Too funny people. Looks to us like this Wilcox kid is playing fast and loose with the facts, when he characterizes his new bill as a move toward "free market capitalism." It looks more like Soviet-style communism to us, with his bill preserving the state liquor monopoly right down through wholesaling/buying/warehousing/ distributing... to the "state package store" level, where private contractors would handle the retail marketing. Here's what this Wilcox fella is proposing people... The way it is set up by Wilcox, private business will pay all the retail costs and overhead and the state will still have all the control and reap all the spoils.
A "move toward free market capitalism?" That's so funny that your blogmeister forgot to laugh.
Seems to us that if representatives Wilcox and Richardson were really serious about adhering to the principles of free market economics (rather than engaging in mere sloganeering), they'd be sponsoring a bill to get the state government out of the liquor business altogether.
So what about it O Gentle Ones? Is it reasonable to expect that the Utah liquor market could achieve free market efficiency, while a state monopoly is preserved at the supply chain apex?
