[WCTU has entered the chat.]

That's the logical argument, but that's not why we have liquor laws. Think way back when, it started with religious anti-drinking. Think prohibition, that was all rooted in religion. But when prohibition failed they had to settle on strict control.

Funny thing now is that as the right loses its "real" religion and becomes "gubment bad" they want looser liquor laws, and now its the left that wants the logical liquor control. But the current laws still came around from way back when.

The reason for gambling laws was to keep the money out of gangs.

A lot of firefighting company actually used to be private, owned and operated by insurance companies

That might be the European definition. In the US, socialism is anything the billionaire class doesn't like.

WORKERS collective ownership of the means of production is what socialism is.

I think that they're implying that people likely to argue that state-controlled stores are socialist are also likely to conflate any service or good offered by the state is socialism.

In the US, "socialism" is both demonized and the actual definition is obfuscated by right-wing (read: most) media in the same way other terms are, such as "woke". This alienates the average person in the US from movements, policies, organizations, etc that would benefit them, from free school lunch programs to socialist representatives running on taxing the wealthy.

Yes, my comment was very US centric.

First, the Homestead Act gave land to a lot of people who were tenant farmers. It enraged the rich folks who saw their profits go down, and it was a boon to the ancestors of a lot of the MAGAs. They'll crow about how their great grandparents came in covered wagons and ignore the fact that they couldn't have afforded the land if it wasn't for a government program.

Second, in my opinion, all political labels are meaningless outside the classroom. There are billionaires in the Chinese Communist Party and North Korea calls itself a Democratic Republic.

I've literally had this conversation with some of my fellow americans.

Them = All Socialist states fail!

Me = What about the Scandinavian countries?

Them = They aren't really Socialist.

Me = So, we can have their health care system?

Them = [Usually silence, sometimes and explanation that it only works there because the population is not as diverse as america.]

There are military members who would say that while using military food pantries that are run by the government and not see the irony. It is hopeless.

There's a certain type of person who sees politics as a route to personal enrichment. That type is present in both major parties in the US, and probably the minor ones as well.

Wooo! Someone mentioned my state!

So many more than I thought. Dayum.

the theory is that lawmakers keep rejecting it until it’s federally legal because they want to make tax money on it just like they’ve done with liquor.

Um... that is really odd. I used to live in Illinois, which has had legal weed for years, and they've been taxing it and raking in the dough all along. In fact, a lot of states with legal weed collect tax on the sale of it.

the theory is that lawmakers keep rejecting it until it's federally legal because they want to make tax money on it

That makes no sense, because other states tax it when they sell it. If it's legal to be sold in the state, why wouldn't they be able to tax it?

Washington DC maybe I don't know.

But as someone aware with Costco pushing hard to sell liquor and Costco being centered in Washington state, I would imagine they have pushed the legislation through by now.

Wow fuck. When i went thro training they literally told me ohio was only other one, maybe its a licensing vs operating thing?

I do recall being in NC and their stores being called abc. Thats not a PA thing tho, we have plcb. (Commercial name FWGS, fine wine and good spirits).

I aint doubting yous, just surprised.

Wyoming may have state run stores. The majority are not, but it's up to the city and county to decide how they sell them. In one county I can go into Walmart and purchase liquor. In another it's only liquor stores, in another the gas station sells liquor based slushies.

Tremendous amounts of alcohol were involved in the creation of the Confederacy as well.

The first few battles were basically bar fights.

Fair enough. I'm not Canadian. I was going by Trailer Park Boys, which takes place in Nova Scotia.

I knew there had to be more than just one

Unlike Wisconsin where drinking alcohol is so intertwined in their culture that their tavern lobby has tried to make it harder to get recreational weed legal there.

For PA, you can get beer and wine in a lot of places

When I first moved here nearly 20 years ago, this was not the case. You could only buy beer at special stores where you could only buy it by the case, or you could buy individual six-packs to take home at bars and taverns. Wine was only available from the state-run stores along with the hard liquor (and this is still the case for the hard stuff). Coming from a state that had fucking drive-thru daiquiri shops, this was hard to accept.

Last time I tried that, they limited me to two 6 packs of beer. Mother-fucker, I’m not drinking this all tonight, but I like this brewery and won’t be back for a year or more.

Do they still do that?

For PA, you can get beer and wine in a lot of places, including gas stations, supermarkets, and beer stores.

Has this changed recently?

Because my understanding was that no, you absolutely cannot get it at gas stations.

You can sometimes find them in grocery stores, but that's a loophole and only works if the store sells hot food (usually buffet style) so they can classify the separate POS as a restaurant with a liquor license.

And if you want more than a 12 pack of beer, you have to go to a "Beer Distributor". A separate store that only sells cases of beer.

Aside from the grocery stores who have gone through the legal loopholes (it's far from all of them), you can only get wine from the state stores that only sell wine and liquor (no beer).

It's stupid. Remnants from prohibition.