Dear Everyone;
An interesting OP-Ed piece in todays Chronicle. The author would take profits from the liquor industry to pay a " fair share " of the costs of alcoholism. No indication of what a " fair share " is or how it is to be assessed or who gets to do the distribution and how much of the " fair share " sticks to the fingers of the " fair share "distributors. Another great idea floated under the aegis of Robbing Hood.
Also no mention of making alcoholics pay their fair share of the costs they create through their own alcoholism. The author also tried the old saw about alcoholism being heritable so alcoholics had no choice. No personal responsibility here.
" I'm an alcoholic because it's in my genes." Or is it more like: " Someone put a gun to my head and told me to drink or else - honest! "
Ron Getty
SF Libertarian
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2004/01/27/EDGJN4IEDO1.DTL