"Driving Me to Drink"

Driving Me to Drink
Posted: 12 Feb 2010 07:17 AM PST www.cafehayek.com
Here's a letter that I sent to the New York Times:
Labor-union official Vincent Fyfe wants the state of New York to continue prohibiting supermarkets from selling wine (Letters <http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/12/opinion/lweb12wine.html?ref=opinion> , Feb. 12). His reason? Supermarket wine sales will put some liquor-store owners out of business and their employees out of work.
Note to Mr. Fyfe: the purpose of the wine trade - like every other trade - is to serve consumers, not to create jobs for producers. If job creation were paramount, then government should not only continue to prohibit supermarkets from selling wine, but should require that bottles of beer, wine, and spirits be hand-delivered to retailers, one at a time, while cradled in the arms of carriers each pulled though the streets in a rickshaw.
Of course, such a requirement would harm consumers, but it would also create lots of jobs.
Sincerely,
Donald J. Boudreaux
(I thank Bill Anderson for suggesting the title of this post.)