By 1810 the number of distilleries in the young nation had increased fivefold, to more than fourteen thousand, in less than two decades. By 1830 American adults were guzzling, per capita, a staggering 7 gallons of pure alcohol a year. . . In modern terms those 7 gallons are the equivalent of 1.7 bottles of standard 80-proof liquor per person, per week—nearly 90 bottles a year for every adult in the nation, even with abstainers (and there were millions of them) factored in.
From Last Call: The Rise and Fall of Prohibition, by Daniel Okrent
We now know that Prohibition is bad policy, but people don’t think about how bad the alcohol problem was that the Temperance Movement managed to get it into the Constitution.
Something else I learned from that book is that the income tax was a Prohibitionist plot. It was a necessary prerequisite because one-third of federal revenue came from alcohol taxes.
Once upon a time:
From Last Call: The Rise and Fall of Prohibition, by Daniel Okrent
We now know that Prohibition is bad policy, but people don’t think about how bad the alcohol problem was that the Temperance Movement managed to get it into the Constitution.
Something else I learned from that book is that the income tax was a Prohibitionist plot. It was a necessary prerequisite because one-third of federal revenue came from alcohol taxes.
it does help that the water doesn’t make you shit yourself to death now (
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