POV:禁酒令颁布100周年提醒我们,禁令很少奏效

POV:禁酒令颁布100周年提醒我们,禁令很少奏效
最终,它并没有导致酒精消费量显著或持久的下降
On January 17, 1920, 100 years ago, 美国正式干涸.
禁止, embodied in the US Constitution’s 18th Amendment, 禁止酒类的销售、制造和运输. Yet it remained 饮酒合法, and 酒精随处可见 throughout 禁止, which ended in 1933.
每次去新罕布什尔州举办布雷顿森林会议(Bretton Woods Conference)的酒店,我都会想起在禁酒令时期喝酒是多么容易。二战后,布雷顿森林会议创立了现代国际货币体系。 The hotel, now known as the Omni Mount Washington Resort, boasts a 地下室的酒吧 called t他的洞穴 that served illegal liquor during 禁止.
上次我在“洞穴”时,考虑到禁酒令时期地下酒吧的盛行,我开始想,禁酒对消费率有什么影响。
此外,我想知道,我们今天喝的酒比禁酒令之前多吗?
消费开始下降
The 禁酒令运动开始 in the early 1800s based on noble ideas such as boosting savings, reducing domestic violence, and improving family life.
当时,美国的酒精使用量正在飙升。 Some estimates by alcohol opponents put consumption at 是今天的三倍. 积极分子认为禁止销售会抑制过度饮酒。 他们的努力非常有效。
But while 禁止 is often portrayed as a sharp change that happened with 最后一次全国号召大家喝酒 just before the stroke of midnight on January 16, thousands of towns throughout the country 在那之前干得很好吗. 第一次世界大战期间,为了节省粮食,更多的禁令生效。
因此,要考虑禁酒令对饮酒习惯的影响,最好从禁酒令颁布前的几年开始。 鉴于啤酒、葡萄酒和烈酒的酒精含量都不同,我们将使用一个人消费的“标准”饮料的数量来进行比较。 A 标准饮品含有 about 14 grams of pure alcohol. 这是指12盎司的啤酒、5盎司的葡萄酒或1.5盎司的烈性酒中的酒精含量。
From 1900 until 1915—five years before the 18th Amendment passed—the 成年人平均饮酒 about 2.5 gallons of pure alcohol a year, which is about 13 standard drinks per week. 到1916年,消费量急剧下降,平均每年降至2加仑,即每周10杯。
禁酒令运动和之前的地方禁酒法似乎已经产生了影响。
喝个篮板
1920年之后,追踪消费变得有点棘手。
禁酒令意味着联邦政府不再有办法衡量人们喝了多少酒。 So to get around the missing information, 澳门威尼斯人注册网站研究人员利用数据 on arrests for drunkenness, deaths caused by cirrhosis of the liver, deaths by alcoholism, and how many patients were admitted to hospitals for alcoholic psychosis. Put together, the numbers 建议饮酒减少 sharply in 1920, falling to about one-third of what people drank before 禁止.
然而,从1921年开始,酒精消费量迅速反弹,并很快达到禁酒令前水平的三分之二左右。 一个可能的原因是美国在1920年和1921年经历了严重的经济衰退。 当1922年经济复苏,进入繁荣的20年代时,人们更有能力购买非法酒。
在1933年12月5日禁酒令结束后的几十年里,随着第18条修正案的废除,消费仍然相对较低。 但到了20世纪六七十年代,美国人的饮酒量和20世纪初一样多。
今天,美国人平均饮酒 每年大约2.3加仑的纯酒精,也就是每周大约12杯标准酒,和禁酒令之前的酒量差不多。
禁止的遗产
禁酒令时代留下了许多遗产。
One result is American’s 偏爱淡啤酒. Drinking also moved from public spaces like saloons 走进家庭.
More negatively, some claim it created organized crime as 暴力飙升 and 暴徒们中饱私囊. It also meant states and the federal government, which relied heavily on excise taxes from liquor sales to fund their budgets, 转向所得税 to help make up for the gap. 最终,它并没有导致酒精消费量显著或持久的下降。
For these reasons, many people believe 这是一次失败, which should give pause to policymakers and others pushing for a ban on 吸烟 or 特许经销商.
And even the person most responsible for drafting 禁止 legislation, US Rep. 安德鲁禁酒 (R-Minn.), was 没有禁酒主义者 himself, suggesting even those who push such bans can’t abide by them.
So, as an economist, I believe if you want to stop people from doing something injurious to their health, 提高价格 works better than a ban. That’s how the United States 降低成年吸烟者的比例 from 40 percent in the 1970s to 16 percent by 2018.
禁酒令颁布100周年提醒我们,禁令很少奏效。
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