Driving You To Drink

The American Thinker has a report on a study that suggests that people who indulge a bit actually live longer. The rate is defined as 2 drinks a day for women and up to 4/day for men. I suppose we all knew that at some level even way back when beer was a sterile substitute for the untreated water which was all that was available.

Here's the punch line:

One of the great largely unknown stories is that Prohibition was a progressive project, driven by the same desire to perfect society and thereby eliminate the downsides of human nature that underlie all of progressivism’s fallacies.  Another little-known aspect of Prohibition is that the income tax was created (and a constitutional amendment passed to enable same) as part of the deal which brought us Prohibition. The income tax was created to replace the alcohol taxes which had provided a substantial share of federal revenue. Talk about a Devil’s Bargain!

So the tax system will drive you to drink, then tax the drink, then tax you some more and drive you to drink some more.....

From a revenue enhancement point of view this makes sense. If you are the cash cow being milked, it's not so hot.