It would seem illogical, perhaps, to think that only a few days ago I advocated against selling alcoholic beverages in movie theatres. Wouldn’t that be inconsistent with my libertarian leanings and attempts to control the responsibility of the population? Well, yes and no. I also support liquor laws when they pertain to impaired driving, since it’s also my neck on the line out there when people can’t drink and decide not to take public transit home. Similarly with movie theatres, the enjoyment of everybody can be ruined by a single person who isn’t being “responsible”. But the odious price-fixing of Ontario’s beer laws being based on some kind of ridiculous social engineering formula to ensure we don’t assist alcoholism, is an insult:
The Ontario government last month quietly hiked the minimum price that can be charged for beer, to $25.60 from $24 for a case of 24 bottles.
That 6.7 per cent increase in the floor price of a case, bottle deposit excluded, has nothing to do with supply-and-demand, production costs, overhead or distribution expenses.
Instead, the Liquor Control Board of Ontario sets minimum prices as part of its “social responsibility” mandate established in 1993. Translation: If alcohol is too cheap, you may abuse it.
It isn’t just the idea that because we have a social responsibility to alcoholics, that we should all pay more to deter abuse, nor the clearly interrupted logic of that concept. Nor is it that I care whether people in Ontario have to pay a few cents more on the bottle for a 2-4, since I can recall on one hand how many times I’ve required that many bottles for consumption. But that the government has any hand in price regulation whatsoever is an absolute affront to the free market system, controlled “substance” or not. Worse yet, it appears that this wasn’t some ridiculous Provincial LCBO decision made by some back room lackey with too much time and not enough work on his hands. It would appear this choice morsel has come directly from the Ministry of Finance itself.
“The Ministry of Finance recommends an increase to the minimum retail price for beer effective November 24, 2008,” says a memo distributed to board members for their Oct. 15 meeting in Toronto.
Then these LCBO phonies attempt to pass it off as an inflationary adjustment, as though that makes more sense than the Ministry of Finance looking for pennies to increase revenue trickles. But if that’s what it is, come out and say it. Don’t pass it off as altruistic formulas for “responsibility” or stuff about inflationary adjustment after gasoline just tanked and transport costs have been more than halved.
