What idiot thinks this is a good idea?
Yes, you’ll raise more money per barrel, but don’t you think they’ll sell less beer if you make it more expensive? Is it a rule that politicians must have their brains removed before they go into office?
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Increased Beer Tax
February 16th, 2009
Discussion (9)¬
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Rep. Cannon is just pissed that a bouncer took away his fake id.
I don’t think you really end up selling that much less beer. You end up selling less premium beer perhaps, but most people aren’t that picky. Tobacco still sells like gangbusters, despite annual tax hikes.
Well, that’s what I was thinking, too–If you wanted to reduce consumption by people with substance abuse problems, attacking the premium beer market doesn’t really do much good. Please refer to my previous post about the classy hobos. Maybe they’re all living in Oregon.
meh. They are raising funds to pay for other programs. I don’t think this is really an attack on the premium market. The clip even says this is a tax that hasn’t been increased in almost 40 years. Maybe I am less prone to caring since I stopped drinking beer, and don’t live in Oregon?
what about my dream of a roquefort and rouge swimming pool. Sigh… perhaps I will have to settle for a velveeta/pabst concoction. Lousy tariff/tax
But your points are made, i will indeed have my swimming pool, but at a funkier level. In that way it does seem to be an attack on premium. Perhaps I should look into their substance abuse programs… I think I have a cheese problem.
At the very least they should be able to hook you up with some Lactaid.
I’m just saying my dream of eating that ridiculous black-foot Spanish ham over a giant keg of some Oregon brew is quickly zipping out of my price range. Where’s a PayPal “Donate Now” button when you need one?
I think your instinct is certainly right that people won’t drink less beer, only cheaper beer.
However, cheaper beers almost necessarily means those mass produced in states other than Oregon. Not only will the sales of local business (i.e. breweries suffer) but the money they were making off the beer-swilling market witll be sent out of state reducing it’s likelihood of being respent somewhere in the state which would have multiplied it’s taxable affect., actually hurting the states revenue.
If local breweries are hit significantly (and i’m not suggesting this is a likely scenario) then they may have to make less product which in terms of scale could drive their prices higher, making them even less desirable to customers and possibly doing extensive damage to the state of Oregon’s small brewery industry.
At which point it could actually affect me (and you), because there would be fewer beers here. Every beer made unavailable to me, dramatically reduces my percieved standard of living. Thus ends my thesis.