While many accept rulings and national legislation at face value, it never hurts to question the reasoning behind such accepted laws, as McCulloch has (Note Florida’s protest as well).  After all, this particular piece of legislation is a bit peculiar when considered globally.  If one peruses the vast online world of foreign brewery websites, they will notice a difference in law and attitude regarding this topic, as many sites only restrict those under the age of 18 from entering, contra a typical US website that insist on 21.  If one looks at world wide alcohol laws, the United States is the minority in requiring a citizen to attain to the age of 21 before purchasing and/or consuming a beer.  In fact Palau and the United Arab Emirates aside, the United States is the only nation holding to 21.

Besides, as Legal Libations points out: In the United States you can drive, buy a house, go to war, marry and divorce before you may even legally hold a beer. Think about it this way:  The federal government will entrust an eighteen year old fresh out of high school with a brand new, fully loaded M16 but not a license to buy a beer.

So why 21?

Oddly enough, the federal government does not mandate and enforce a nationwide drinking age of 21; kind of.  Remember, this is The United States of America.  States’ rights are built into the constitution as the U.S. first existed as individual territories so to speak, even using different forms of currency.  Most states had set the age to 21 by the time of the Vietnam war.  However, as hordes of youngsters were drafted in to battle the Vietcong, many states responded sympathetically by lowering the legal age down to 18.  Who wants to forage througha sweltering booby trapped jungle and not be allowed a cold one to relax to in the evening?  But in the late seventies and early 80’s, the nation began to notice a rise in alcohol related automobile accidents.  Several states responded by raising the legal age of consumption back to 21, but not all.  In response to the unfortunate new trend Ronald Reagan, in 1984, signed into law The Uniform Drinking Age Act, that pressured states into mandating a legal drinking age of 21.

States still have somewhat sovereignty, however, and can choose to disregard this act, yet not without consequences.  Over the years since our existence as a nation, the states have grown more dependent on federal funding for all sorts of programs.  Under the Federal Highway Act, states who choose to ignore the Uniform Drinking Act are subject to a penalty of 10% less of an annual federal highway apportionment.  Whether good times or bad, this is quite a chunk!

It always seems to come down to money.

With South Carolina’s recent defiance of status quo, the question again is up in the air.  Is 21 too old?  If a man or woman is willing (or forced) into dying for their country, should they be allowed a brew?  Or, should military enlistment age be raised to 21?  Is this a denial of a right of adulthood; a.k.a. Age Discrimination?

Who is responsible for the responsibility of a fledgling adult?  Themselves? The State? Parents?

The President of Johns Hopkins Recently Said: “Kids are going to drink whether it’s legal or not. We’d at least be able to have a more open dialogue with students about drinking, as opposed to this sham where people don’t want to talk about it because it’s a violation of the law.”  I see his point.  Binge drinking seems more likely to occur when the very act of drinking an alcoholic beverage must be done in secret.

So we ask you, should the drinking age be lowered to 18 in your state, and why or why not?

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While I think we as a culture may at times pride controversy over cataclysm, but at the same time, our virtuous history pokes through and we hope for unbridled reconciliation, and what better vehicle for healing, than a good brew.  After all, beer is America’s favorite beverage, played pivotal roles in the America’s formative history, and was brewed in at the hands of our first president.

The question now arises:  “What frothy varieties will serve as peace-pipe at the Obama residence?”  It is not only the craft beer community asking this question.  Across the blogosphere political pundits and curious citizens alike are prodding the oval office for clues, demonstrating that we the people are aware that a man’s beer of choice can reveal much about his character.

While unconfirmed, it appears that Crowley, Gates, and Obama have let on as to what they will be drinking.  The word on the street is (ABC news):

Obama:  Budweiser

Gates:  Red Stripe

Crowley:  Blue Moon

As these choices are yet unconfirmed, I do hope one of the three read this post before settling on these choices.  First of all, while beer is the perfect companion to camaraderie, I do wish that the three could all feast upon the same brew.  I think any lover of the malt will agree that sharing the same brew is bonding experience.  Second, each of the three suspect brews is foreign.  With an imploding economy, a falling dollar, and an unhealthy unemployment rate, I really am convinced that the president needs to throw his weight behind a more patriotic, American owned, choice.  The US craft beer industry is, after all, a thing to be beheld and supported, has achieved world class status in a relatively short time, and unlike other industries, held its head above water in tough times.

So, assuming the President, or Gates and Crowley were to read this article, I ask your opinion…what do you think should be served at Obama’s first presidential beer party?  Were the voice of this blog to reach the right ears, I know that the writers of this blog would volunteer some of their homebrew!

***photo credit

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Be that as it may, Mr. President made up for his mistake by apologizing and admitting to the wrong which he caused and apologizing (this is more rare than most collector’s items).  But the best thing that he did was countenance the suggestion made by Officer James Crowley’s suggestion that the three of them have a beer together to clear the air.  If the real fabric of the constitution was pounded out over pints by the forefathers, then why not grievances?  I remain optimistic that the White House will set up the meeting and that comraderie and understanding will happen over a cold one.  Beer…the great equalizer.  I only wish the President would drink a beer with yours truly.  Can anyone help me with that?

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Could there possibly be a silver lining in all of this, or am I just morbidly pleased with negative news?  Yes and No.

Just this week I discovered that a local store that sells everything from tractor plows, to exotic birds, to fine wine and beers, was experiencing a 20+% decline in overall revenue.  While this is not uncommon in trying times such as these that we find ourselves in the midst of, I was elated to hear that alcohol sales were up 17%.  Keep in mind this store does not have a hard liquor license and specializes in craft beer and quality wine.  You won’t find a fifth of Everclear, and the Budweiser is cleverly hidden in a corner, while a tart Belgian Flemish ale greets you early on.

I would be disheartened to know that in the midst of hard times, customers of this stores are drowning their fears and depression in a drunken stupor induced by the gulping down of a case of Keystone light.  But it appears, that people are rediscovering the joy that can be found in the moderate and social enjoyment of a refined beverage like beer.  In fact, as I drove to the store in mention, I passed a deserted megaplex movie theater where tickets run you fifteen bucks a person and you need to take out a second mortgage to enjoy popcorn with a film showing you mutilated bodies at the hands of a psycho killer.  When I got to the store, however, the beer aisle was jammed.

Maybe the materialistic American mindset is shifting from malls to a drink shared at home with the wife or a friend; from a cheap sweater to a life long memory.  Perhaps beer isn’t just a college student’s vehicle to the toilet, rather the experience it was created to embody.

A silver lining?  We would be fools to dismiss the joy that is found in a bottle of beer as fleeting or evil.  After all, the renowned Hebrew Psalmist rejoiced and said, “He (God) makes [...] wine that gladdens the heart of man.”  I for one, despite the doomsday reports from the Wall Street Journal, am joyful as I sip on my beer!

Related Posts:

Beer…Saving the US Economy (Again)

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Economics is by no means my forte; however, common sense is.  Common sense, when applied to economics, is often disregarded as a kill joy, for common sense states items and services come at an expense and that one cannot spend more than they make whether at the individual, corporate, or governmental level.

Lofty proposals for health care reform require lofty funding, evident in a historically high federal budget.  Unlike a business budget, which is balanced before being board approved, a federal budget declares a monetary figure for running the country, and then concerns itself with finding the funds.  Concerning health care reform, which is  an initial attempt to not only cut health care costs, but to provide government sponsored health care for all, the figure is in and now the unwilling benefactor is being sought.  One such civil Santa Claus under scrutiny is our beloved beer industry.

Six days ago the Committee for Financing Comprehensive Health care Reform, met to fill the gaping hole in the health care budget.  A few members of the committee made the plausible suggestion of increasing the excise tax on beer by 300%.  An excise tax is a tax levied on a service or product.  Excise taxes, when raised at the macro level (300%) can be extremely pernicious, not only to an industry, but to the ation it supports.  Here is the logic.

An excise tax does not sound excessive at the surface level.  It imposes a tax on a good, such as beer.  Sounds fair, right?  Keep in mind that the business is also being taxed (i.e. the brewery) and the brewer.  As an individual contemplating a future in the brewing industry, does the potential for triple taxation encourage, or discourage me?  Were such a 300% levy approved, the only way a brewery could survive is by drastically increasing the cost of their product, resulting in reduced consumption, resulting in the eventual disintegration of a business.
According to an expert in the beer industry, Jay Brooks:

Directly and indirectly, the beer industry employs approximately 1.9 million Americans, paying them almost $62 billion in wages and benefits and generating more than $198 billion in economic output. Proposals to triple or quadruple the excise tax will have severe economic impacts on the industry. Just tripling the current beer tax to $20.25/proof gallon will cost the country jobs at a time when the national unemployment rate is the highest it has been since 1983. Beer Institute estimates that a 300% increase in the excise tax on beer will result in 179,000 lost jobs, $5.9 billion in lost wages, $18.9 billion in lost economic output, and $2.7 billion in lost federal, state, and local revenues from decreased production and consumption. The impacts of these tax increases may be even greater for small businesses as microbreweries and brewpubs will be hit with significantly larger tax bills. Many of these smaller companies may be forced to close.

Exaggeration is not necessary…the stakes are high!

Perhaps you and I could swallow a more modest and moral levy on our favorite liquid oblation–say, 15%–but 300% is intolerable and reeks of desperation.  I hope that any respect and admiration for the brewers that make your evenings that much more enjoyable invokes civil action on your part.  Hundreds of years ago, recourse to unethical fiscal confiscation was limited to throwing boxes of tea into a bay.  Fortunately for us, action is at the tips of our fingers.  All you have to do is email a member of the Finance Committee!

Jay Brooks, to whom I am indebted to for so much information regarding this topic, has provided numerous links to easily facilitate activism. Please visit his sites:

Action Alert: Federal Excise Tax

US Senate Told To Raise Beer Taxes

Cheers!

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Over at the examiner, Charlie Papazian accurately states:

I say rather confidently, there’s never been a better time to be a beer drinker in the United States.  Wave after glorious wave of beer festivals and beer-centric events are sudsing over the American landscape.   You might say the “tide’s in!”  Are you a happy beer enthusiast or what?   With beer enthusiasm on the rise, especially for small, local and craft brewed beer there’s a lot of pent up pride building.  I’ve heard many boast of their favorite beer city.

With microbreweries popping up all over the US and older Microbreweries graduating into craft breweries, there is a lot of state-wide competition and talk over which US city can rightly claim the title of “beer city USA.”

You can read the article, view voting rules, and actually vote on the city of your choice by clicking THIS HYPERLINK. I myself have already voted, although I’ll admit, I have traveled little, so my choice was made after considering some of my favorite crafte beers and the locale of their origin.

I am encouraged at the growth of the craft industry in the US, the opportuinities it is informing, the pride it is instilling in our nation at a critical point in history, and the innate statement that is made to conglomorate brewing and business practice.  Case in point:  When the hop shortage hit recently, the large conglomorate breweries with larger cash reserves bought up more than was necessary quantities of hops.  While this may have been done in the name of self preservation, it put microbreweries in a pinch…an expensive pinch.  Sam Adams, on the other hand, made a generous and brotherly hop donation to microbreweries. Thus said, I can tell you I did not vote for St. Louis.

If you get a chance, after participating in beer democracy, let us know who you voted for and why.  I hope in the future to found my own city, reign as mayor, and name it “Beer City” to avoid confusion in the future.  Just kidding.

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Of course, the first above example of the Algerian Owl is somewhat ridiculous, but so is our current state of affairs.  You begin to get the feeling that senators, house-members, and other political parcels of our system are radically disconnected from the people as a whole.  You begin to feel that they live in an alternative reality where up is down.  Where you achieve whatever you want simply based on believing hard enough.  Is this the way things are supposed to be?  Did our forefathers envision us to be this way?  I get the impression that our current politicians and political system would be an infuriating farce to them.

As much as Joe Six-pack was mentioned during the most current campaign, he was only an example of bipartisan rhetoric (the only thing people seemed to agree on).  It appears that Joe Six-pack was only the means to and end (for both parties).  

Now, this is a beer website, so where does the beer come in?  Did you know that the revolutionary fathers met in the pubs of the new world to pound out the meaning of our future country?  They debated, clawed, and fought over the most meaningful endeavor that they would ever encounter and achieved greatness by means of talking it over with a pint or two in hand.  They mingled with the common people in bars.  They fanned the flames of fortitude and rebellion among the people by meeting them in the most common of places, the pub.  They even got the common soldiers to show up to drills with the promise that kegs of beer would be present.  So, in many ways, beer was central to the establishment of this great country. 

What am I suggesting?  I am merely trying to drive home that our politicians should find ways to be more down to earth.  Haste the day that they return to the bars to flesh out what they should be doing.  All the while they will be seeing, meeting, and mingling with the common people and put them back to the fore in the political arena.  Our bar life, pub life, night-club life could be a very constructive time for all of us to settle our disagreements and reconcile us to one another (instead of it being a place of drunken stupidity). We could certainly afford to call our local politicians to account using the same medium that the greats of our past used: En Vino Veritas!  Maybe we can get passed the impasse.

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Question : Do you support beer?

McCain:  My opponent has voted against numerous beer bills that I had a hand in promoting.  I have a track record of beer advocacy and have fought for beer rights.  My opponent has hated beer his whole life.  Although he lacks experience to run a brewery.  You will see that I have the experience necessary.  My opponent has been close friends with a man who purposely brewed skunky beer in an attempt to undermine our beerconomy.  He listened to a preacher of beer hate for 20 years.  Friends, we don’t need someone who doesn’t understand beer in this confusing time of the mirco-brew revolution.  We need someone who is looking out for Joe 6 pack, 12 pack, 24 pack, 30 pack, pony keg and keg.  We need someone who will looking out for Joe long-neck bottle.  God knows that Joe six pack is going to need at least six to get the image of Joe the Plumber’s ass crack out of his mind.  My opponent is a neo-communist beer hating fascist.  He wants to take away your beer and your children’s beer.  We need a solid beer future and can never have that with my opponent.

Obama:   My opponent has voted against numerous beer bills that I had a hand in promoting.  I have a track record of beer advocacy and have fought for beer rights.  My opponent has voted with Busch beer 90% of the time.  If my opponent runs the brewery he will keep giving you more of the same beer.  We need a new formula for beer success not more of the same.  We need a hope for beer that doesn’t taste like the same old beer.  We need change in our fundamental conception of our beerconomy.  Friends I’m looking out for you.  I don’t want to give cheaper beer to the rich while charging the poor more.  I want affordable beer care for us all.  This curmudgeonly old geezer will swill up the beer of our future generations.  He wants the rich to form a beeristorcracy and keep all the beer for themselves in an evil master-plan to make true beer freedom impossible.

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