It’s time to proclaim a new class of the “oppressed” in the pantheon of society’s victims — bourbon drinkers and other imbibers of liquors. Virginia’s tax system engages in systemic bias in favor of the teetotalers.
It’s not just that drinkers in Virginia must purchase their spirits at government-owned ABC stores or that they must pay excise taxes for the privilege of acquiring their sustenance. As the Tax Foundation points out, state governments utilize many other means to extract wealth from the drinking class. These include case and bottle fees, special sales taxes on spirits, wholesale taxes, and retail and distributor license fees.
When you measure the impact of all these add-ons, the Old Dominion imposes the third-highest implied tax of any state in the country, says the Tax Foundation.
The states of Washington and Oregon are the two highest. The lowest? Wyoming, state motto: “the equality state.”
“Principled public policy changes should support both industry growth and responsible consumption with neutral, simple, and transparent taxes,” argues the Tax Foundation.
Transparency, of course, is antithetical to the leviathan state. It’s hard to know whom to blame for the high cost of living when you can’t tell who’s picking your pocket.
In a sane world, one might argue that excess consumption of alcohol constitutes a social ill and, therefore, that a “sin tax” is justifiable if it (a) discourages negative behavior or (b) compensates society (through the intermediation of the government) for social costs incurred.
But we don’t live in a sane world. No one makes those arguments, not seriously. Taxing liquor in Virginia is just one of many ways to raise money for an insatiable government whose spending by political elites to benefit their favored constituencies knows no limits. Drinkers of bourbon, vodka, whiskey, rum, tequila and other distilled spirits are not a favored group. The drinking class pays taxes and gets nothing in return. Hence, by any rational definition, we are oppressed!
Bourbon drinkers of Virginia, unite! You have nothing to lose but your chains.
— JAB
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