Beer v. Gas
Our friends to the north have a good point to make about government’s pricing restrictions on alcohol versus natural gas. The gist of the article goes something like this: government carefully regulates the price of a luxury good like alcohol but lets the market decide the price of a necessity such as natural gas. Unless you’ve been living in a cave and chop your own firewood, you’ve certainly noticed soaring energy prices over the last year. However, due to the government diligence, beer prices have remained relatively steady.
Does this make sense? Of course, the opinion piece leaves out a couple things. For example, gas is a limited natural resource that people should conserve, hence the necessity for free market forces. Of course, the same argument could be made in favor of government regulation, which is likely similar to why the government regulates alcohol prices. They want people to drink less. However, this effectively becomes a price guarantee.
Anyway, for me, the real point of the matter is that the government should spend less time pricing alcohol and more time figuring out why energy companies have been taking us for a ride recently.
