

Prohibition: A Cautionary Tale  - cwan
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704876104574632273709727450.html?mod=wsj_share_digg

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stuaxo
I'm sorry, but this is still going on in 2010 right now and to have no mention
of it is completely ridiculous -

'Taking a drink became a sign of defiance against the arrogant minority who
had deprived people of their "right" to enjoy themselves.'

Substitute E, K, Coke, Weed, LSD, 2CB or whatever and were bang up to date.

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dtf
I got the feeling that was the subtext. But maybe I'm reading subtleties which
aren't there. It's all a bit ambiguous - the last paragraph, the conclusion,
doesn't really tie in.

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moron4hire
He's not really saying anything new here. We get a too-long overview of the
history of the Volstead Act, and then one paragraph cautioning Congress to
remember the lessons of Prohibition. There isn't even a hint as to what issue
he is referring to. Is it health care, finance, marijuana, carbon dioxide? If
he meant all of them, he should have said all of them.

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njl
Health care.

He points out that prohibition destroyed the seventh largest industry in the
country at the time it was passed, and did nothing but breed criminality and
disrespect for law. He then implies that the coming massive government
intervention in health care will wreak cataclysmic and unexpected levels of
havoc with the 15% of our economy that the health care industry represents.

His argument is best when cast as a pointed reminder that the government is
made of fallible human beings who can't be trusted to understand all the
implications of the incredibly complicated system they are attempting to
administer, and less when cast as some sort of direct analogy.

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endlessvoid94
Totally thought this was about MJ. You are, of course, absolutely correct.

I fear most of the population will not get it. Or maybe I'm stupid...

