Government Drunk with Power
By John Stossel on Government
The state of Utah gives itself a monopoly on the sale of liquor. Governments are such incompetent managers that they often lose money on even the best businesses (New York manages to lose money on Off Track Betting and Cleveland loses money running a food market, but Utah's monopoly is profitable for the state. Still, this is a government-run operation, so customer service comes last.
It's not uncommon for workers to lock doors, letting in one customer only when another leaves.
Bureaucrats may not worry about convenience for their customers, but they love red tape.
The Legislature this year also approved HB419, which requires Utah state liquor and wine stores to display "State" or "State of Utah" on their building signs. Legislators also passed more than 400 pages of technical changes to state liquor laws in SB167, which require all handbooks and publications to include the new language.
Utah has a reputation of being a business-friendly state, but once bureaucrats grab an industry, they squeeze out the entrepreneurship. Want to open a restaurant? Don't even try. It's very hard to get a license.
Entrepreneurs who want a permit to serve wine, spirits or heavy beer must wait for population estimates to increase or existing establishments to go out of business...
(L)icenses in all three categories have run out -- permits for bars to serve drinks with or without a meal, full-service licenses for restaurants to serve all types of alcohol with meals, and limited-service permits allowing eateries to serve only beer or wine with an order of food.
That's too bad. For living under the yoke of this much government idiocy, the people of Utah deserve a drink. |
