Prohibition Due for a Comeback?

Our government is racing towards the August deadline for the debt ceiling, and now is the time to start wondering how a government shutdown will effect each of us, as well as a nation, and the world, as a whole.

One result of a shutdown would be the failure for certain businesses to keep their liquor licenses, which as an article in The Daily Caller notes, could led to an "underground" market for booze -- again. This was tried once before, and it was called Prohibition and it was one of the primary drivers of the creation of organized crime.

Are we going to take another trip down that long, dry road? the article speculates.

"Of course, one need not look further than the... state government shutdown [that] recently forced brewing behemoth MillerCoors to remove its golden liquid from bar taps after the company’s license to operate in Minnesota expired," the article continues.

"Meanwhile, some Minnesota bars were forced to close their doors because they couldn’t renew their liquor licenses. With that being said, maybe — just maybe — we could be looking at the rise of underground booze again. And maybe that wouldn’t be such a bad thing.

"Ignore the rise of the mafia and organized crime, as well as the bullets and destruction that came with it, and think about the benefits of a scenario where small entrepreneurs are forced to innovate underground. Frankly, many good things came out of the era of black markets and Prohibition. Take technology. Thanks to Prohibition, we have the wonderful sport of NASCAR and the technological advancements that come with the necessity of evading Barney Fife. Distillers were forced to invent new ways to store their spirits, in essence recreating the warehousing system and supply chain management. Furthermore, the successful moonshiner of the day utilized small, portable stills that could be quickly moved and hidden."

Read the rest of the article, Drinking the debt ceiling away on The Daily Caller.