It’s All About Job Creation

This weekend, Washington Democrats voted to oppose the popular liquor-store privatization initiatives that are likely to appear on this fall's ballot.

 
Speeches for the opposition motion included this plea:  “It will put over 1,000 well-paid family jobs in unemployment, to be replaced by no one, because they're not going to hire more people when Costco puts up another rack with booze, nor will Safeway nor will any other grocery store. It will just be another rack.”

Now, I ask you, if the private sector really can do the same job that the state is currently doing without spending a dime, why on earth would we not want that?  The speaker's logic completely ignores that those 1,000 well-paid family jobs are being paid for with tax dollars, for which the taxpayer has a right to expect some benefit.  If he’s correct in his statement, then the state’s position as a retailer provides absolutely no benefit to the public.

What the party should have done, and what any rational person would do, is endorse the initiative in conjunction with a tax increase on liquor that would generate the same amount of revenue that the state stores currently generate through their “mark-up”.  Then, these 1,000 state workers wouldn’t have to be unemployed – they could instead be put to work doing things that actually benefit citizens.  Or maybe there’s something better we could do with the money?

We’re talking about $150 million here.  The price tag for giving a poor person health care through the state’s Basic Health Plan is $50,000.  That means that, while delivering the same product to the citizenry in a more convenient way, we can shift the resources currently supporting retail liquor sales over to the BHP and provide health care for 3,000 impoverished children.