People have different opinions about liquor (just like they have different opinions about porn). The economics of well-intentioned prohibitionism, though, are inviolable: in an effort to make the state’s highways safer by placing liquor control agents in state liquor stores on Opening weekend, the state of Alabama has merely given 19 year old binge drinkers different incentives at the margin. Fewer underage purchases, yes. However, this will lead to more purchases through 21+ middlemen and more drinking away from home, which usually translates into more drunk driving, not less. Though people are ultimately responsible for their own actions, the moral of the anti-interventionist story needs to be shouted from the housetops: we’re literally killing people with kindness and good intentions.
See Mark Thornton’s excellent The Economics of Prohibition for more.
