Wednesday, July 25, 2007

Prohibition: Uncle Sam beat Eliot Ness

Don Boudreaux, of Cafe Hayek fame (see blogroll), writes that Prohibition ended, not because of popular demand, but because the US government was running short of tax money in the Depression.

It's an interesting theory. I have long thought that the UK government is more hooked on cigarettes than the smokers. If they really wanted to ban smoking, they'd start by cutting the tax, so as to wean themselves off financial dependence. But how would they replace the lost revenue?

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